


Nature’s Rejuvenation

by Silvaxus



Series: Protectors of the Realm [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angel Wings, Angry Castiel (Supernatural), Biting, Bottom Gabriel, Bottom Lucifer (Supernatural), Bottom Sam Winchester, Chuck doesn't understand a fucking thing, Fighting, Gabriel being Loki, Hair-pulling, Hand Jobs, Injury, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Multiple Orgasms, Nipple Play, Oral Sex, Rimming, Rough Oral Sex, Sassy Castiel (Supernatural), Table Sex, Top Gabriel (Supernatural), Top Lucifer (Supernatural), Top Sam Winchester, Topping from the Bottom, small review of what happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 07:43:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18824233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvaxus/pseuds/Silvaxus
Summary: Many years have passed since Sam and Dean Winchester were named the Protectors of the Realm by Gaia herself. The trickster archangel Gabriel remained by their sides just like the stoic seraph Castiel and the Devil Lucifer.Together they saw Heaven die, the angels fall and became human, while one of the two remaining angels were given the task to protect the last spark of the Eternal Garden.The Protectors and their angels guarded the Earth and its creatures against everything and anything; but life is an always moving river, and things were about to change.





	1. A few days

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys,
> 
> as I was already giving you small hints and teasers over the last weeks...here it is, Part 4 of my Protector Series. I finished writing this story last November as my NaNoWriMo project but with the amount of Bingo-Fics I was posting, it never felt right to start with this story...but here we are. 
> 
> And now we are going to play the good, the bad, the ugly.
> 
> The good: This story and its 10 Chapters are finished just like part 5 of this series!  
> The bad: I'm unable to write anything these days and this will go on for the next 8 weeks at least. I have an infection in my wrist and thumb that makes using any kind of keyboard or even my phone living Hell. Just writing these few lines is painful and annoying to me.  
> The ugly: This won't fix itself, sadly as it is, and so I'm counting the days until my surgery next week. Means, I won't be posting as much as I did the first few months of this year. I'm going to post a chapter a week, maybe two, I'm not sure yet. 
> 
> Those of you who want to talk directly to me, are welcome to do so on discord: Silvaxus#6378
> 
> Thank the fuck my right hand is still okay xD

Laughter filled the air around the two brothers. Empty beer bottles were scattered around them while they sat on the beach of an island Sam had lifted from the ground of the ocean years ago. The sun was warm above them, and the almost-white looking sand was soft and hot beneath them.   
  
Turtles pulled themselves up onto beach and birds flew in the sky. The good mood of the protectors attracted many forms of life.   
  
Still laughing, Sam grabbed another beer, he used his powers to cool it before lowering his antlers with a silly smile on his face and cracked the bottle open with the sharp tip.   
  
Dean started to laugh so hard about his brother’s trick, that he choked on his beer and tears ran down his face.   
  
They had already spent some time on the island, but they were in no hurry to go back to the bunker. Should they be needed, they would know, and so they had decided to spend some time together without their angels.   
  
The day passed, and the sun was a red glowing orb in the horizon that colored the sand among them in a soft shade close to warm caramel. When the sun vanished behind the skyline, and the stars appeared on the dark canopy of the night sky, the Winchester brothers fell silent.   
  
Only the soft and rhythmic sound of the waves hitting on the beach could be heard, and the Milky Way was a bright and clear band in the sky.   
  
Sighing, Dean scooted over to his brother until their sides were touching but Sam pressed against his brother’s body. “Isn’t it weird how far we’ve come, Sammy?” Looking at Dean and back to the ocean, Sam nodded before he started to speak.   
  
“We started as hunters, humans, and now… now we are the Protectors of the Realm.” Chuckling, Dean handed Sam another beer who took the bottle, cooled it and opened it again using his antlers. “You make it sound so easy… but remember the damn hunt for the blood witch? That’s where everything started. God, how much I still hate witches despite the fact that we can nuke them just by looking at them.”   
  
A soft wind blew over the island when Sam nodded. “Yeah, I remember. I was so frightened when I saw you on this clearing with the witch. I thought I lost you for a moment.” Dean placed his hand on Sam’s knee and squeezed him once. “But you didn’t, despite your worries and your new fears about what the witch said to you. Everything was alright with you back then, and it still is.”   
  
Looking at Dean again, Sam buried his hand in the still warm sand. “It took me a while to get over it but you helped, just like Gabriel when we found him.” Grinning like the wolf he was, Dean punched Sam against the shoulder. Growling, Sam punched him back. “What was that for?” Laughing in open joy, Dean shook his head. “You were ready to rip Cas’ head off when he wanted to check on Gabriel. You hated it how close he was to the pixy. You basically fled from the room with Gabe in your arms.”  
  
Feeling embarrassed, Sam looked down at the sand. He remembered how it had been, but never really noticed it at the time.   
  
“And later, when the pixy pushed you because of the Mark, I was ready to run from the room because I was sure you would drop your towel any second and fuck him on the ground just because you could have done it, even back then with him de-powered as he was.”   
  


Snorting, Sam threw a hand full of sand at his brother. “It only crossed my mind when I was back in my room, but I remember your face when Cas looked like an oversized pie to you. When we were suddenly able to see their true forms.”   
  
Sam felt Dean shudder at the memory. “Yeah, but you were ready to jump Gabe the same way minutes later. Still makes me feel a lot better about that day.” Rolling with his eyes, both of them fell silent. The night was dark without a moon, but the stars reflecting on the water turned everything in such a stark light that it made look sharp in the darkness. Not that the darkness bothered the two brothers.  
  
“The hunt with the other hunters who wanted to set up a trap for us was the first time we used our powers. It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt. Not even the power of demon blood felt so good.” Sam’s voice was so gentle that the waves almost swallowed the sound of his words. “I remember,” Dean answered in the same gentle voice. “The way you threw yourself between the hunter and the pixy; damn Sammy, I never saw you move so fast. I’m still thankful that Cas took me away before I saw what you did to Gabe. Possessive bastard.”   
  
Sam’s smug face was visible to Dean even in the dark. “But the possessive bastard should know that I wasn’t shocked to find the Devil a bit later joining our club of misfits.” Surprised, Sam looked at his brother, and Dean’s green wolf eyes glowed in the pale starlight. “Don’t look at me like that, Sammy. I know you, and I’m not blind. Neither was I surprised to see Lucifer’s decoration on his arm the first time I saw him at the bunker. Back then, when we were still human, I would have hated to have him around you after everything that happened, but now… now I understand you. I know you need him just like you need Gabriel, Cas and myself. It’s about all of us, together.”   
  
Sam felt his antlers vanished and so he rested his head on his brother’s shoulder. “It’s about family after all. Even when the rest of the family isn’t happy about it.” Grunting, Dean rested his head against Sam’s. “Are you talking about our family or the extended angelic part of the family?”   
  
Thinking about his answer, Sam listened to the waves. “Both, I think. We met our small family when we had to deal with the extended angelic part.” Nodding, Dean remained silent for a moment before he spoke again. “I sometimes still can’t get over the fact you kicked the angels out of Heaven, or that you gave little Ramiel the Essence of the Garden. Not the girl is like the little sister we never had.” Laughing again, Sam sat up again and leaned back into the sand to look at the stars with Dean stretched out next to him. “I know, when they showed me the dying Garden, and with what they did afterward, I was ready to let them all die, but… it would have felt wrong in the end. I wouldn’t have been any better than them if I had done like that. The way it is now… it still feels like it was the right decision.”   
  
Scratching the Mark on his chest, Sam looked over at his brother who appeared deep in his thoughts. “Yeah, but still none of the angels you’ve kicked out has returned to Heaven. Ramiel and Joshua are still alone up there even though Cas visits them often. They don’t go to Hell either like we were expecting it. Where do they go when their time on Earth is up? We still have no answer, and it’s bothering me.”  
  
Sam shrugged his shoulders and the sand scratched his back. “I ask myself that question often when he lays one of them to rest, but I don’t let it bother me. We will find out when we are meant to know. Gaia will show it to us because those who had been angels once die as one of Her children. Maybe she is keeping them safe. Who knows?”   
  
Silence followed their talk, but it was a comfortable silence. Sometimes they didn’t need to talk at all to understand each other. More than once they had smiled at their angels after they confused the celestial beings with a unique way of communicating.   
  
“Do you think there’s still time to visit Bobby before… you know?” Sam looked up when Dean sat up to look at him after Sam’s question. Dean hesitated, and for a moment his face looked more like a wolf than usual before it shifted back. “I don’t know for sure, but… it doesn’t feel like it. There isn’t much time left that I can tell with any reliability. Though I can’t tell how much time we have left until we need to go.”  
  
Nodding, Sam sat up to look at the ocean again, but the dark water with the stars reflecting on it looked just like the night sky. A mirror of the dark night.   
  
“Are we going to tell them?” Sam’s voice was hard, and frost started to crawl over the mirror of the night when Dean growled wolfishly next to him. “We have to go, Sam, we need to go. I know that you don’t feel it like I do but… the call is getting louder with every passing day, and we still have things to prepare. As much as I want to tell them everything, I know they won’t be able to understand. It would only make things unnecessarily difficult for everyone. They will get our message when the time is right, and while they will be angry with us, they will understand our decision.”  
  
There were no words spoken again after Dean explained himself. Talking wasn’t necessary. They both knew what was coming and that they had to walk this path alone, without their mates.   
  
It was their destiny, their battle. For they were the Protectors of the Realm. Guardian, Nourisher, Protector, and Gardener


	2. Not yet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so fucking happy that this story goes finally online...^^

Sam walked through the empty hallways of the bunker. Sometimes, just like now, it hit him hard how much had changed over the years since they became Protectors. The forest around the bunker had grown, and within the powerful barrier Sam had thrown over the woods like a cloak, life in such different forms came to be; that the Joshua made it his duty to guard the forest. Sam had told the lost-looking angel that it wasn’t necessary because the forest lived off the power from the beings living in him; but the angel who watched over the Eternal Garden for so long merely smiled. Joshua wasn’t lost anymore when he roamed the Protectors forest.  
  
The Earth had regained much of her strength thanks to Sam and Dean. Habitats destroyed by humanity, were full of life again. Animals which were thought extinct appeared back from the forests. The oceans were clean and full of many forms of life. As in human’s nature, they tried to understand what was happening; but only a few knew the truth.  
  
The Winchester brothers and their angels had turned into a myth; a story told around the campfire at night among the hunters. Some called them a legend, stories of old hunters who had lived in the dark. But those who still remembered Sam and Dean as they once were, human and always fighting, only told the rookies to shut it and if they needed any proof, they were shown a spot on a map every hunter stayed far away from. Lebanon, Kansas. The small town and grown into a sanctuary in the shadow of the forest. Every being who needed shelter, supernatural or not, was welcome as long as they remained peaceful.  
  
All these things wandered through Sam’s mind while he walked through the bunker. The only thing utterly untouched by any changes over the years. Still the same grey walls, hallways, the library, the kitchen. Only their rooms had adapted to their personal needs, but from the outside, when the door was closed, everything looked just like the day Sam and Dean walked into the bunker for the first time.  
  
Today, the bunker was entirely silent as Sam had asked Dean to give him some time alone with Lucifer. Dean, in his easy kind of way, had no trouble talking Gabriel into going out for some fun tonight and where Dean went, Castiel followed. Ramiel hadn’t been at the bunker when Dean announced his idea, but the tiny angel had appeared out of thin air and asked if she could come along. Sam had noticed it shortly after he gave Ramiel the Essence of the Garden. A subtle change had happened with Ramiel. When she was at the bunker, she always stayed close to Castiel, and when Sam asked his brother, Dean shrugged. Castiel had explained to him, that the tiny but fierce little angel was to him what Sam was for Dean. Someone to look after and teach.  
  
The four of them, Dean, Cas, Gabriel, and Ramiel, had left with the Impala, a rare tour with Dean’s still beloved car, to drive down to Lebanon and visit the local bar. It gave Sam the time he needed to be alone with Lucifer before he…  
  
Shaking himself out of his musings, Sam walked into the library to find Lucifer sitting at the large table which was, as per usual, overloaded with books. It had surprised everyone when Lucifer made it his duty to take care of the library, and Sam had no trouble sharing his space with his archangel.  
  
As to not make it too noticeable, Dean had asked Lucifer if he wanted to join them, but the archangel had only mumbled something like ‘have fun’ and went back to translate an ancient text written in the language of the archangels. With a knowing look at Sam, Dean had ushered the three angels to the Impala and drove off.  
  
Sam watched Lucifer sitting at the table and listened to the scratching of the archangel’s pen on paper as he translated the text in front of him. Lucifer sat with his back to the door and so Sam could see the fire lily on Lucifer’s neck, which was part of the mark Sam had given him so long ago. Against the white of Lucifer’s t-shirt, the red of the flower was bright yet dark.  
  
Walking up behind Lucifer, Sam placed his hand on the fire lily. “Hello, my angel.” Sam’s voice was soft, and Lucifer froze on his spot when Sam touched his neck. The flowers not covered by Lucifer’s t-shirt started to shift on the archangel’s skin, and suddenly every flower on Lucifer’s arm was in full bloom and Sam thought he could even smell them in the air.  
  
Lucifer’s stretched his neck and turned around to look at from the corner of his eyes. A faint red ring surrounded the blue of Lucifer’s eyes. “Sam… I thought you went out with the others.” Smiling, Sam shook his head and scratched Lucifer’s neck with his short nails. Lucifer closed his glowing eyes, stretched his throat and offered Sam his neck in hope for more scratches. Lucifer secretly loved it when Sam scratched his neck with his short nails.  
  
“No, I didn’t feel like going out, and with our brothers gone it means I have you to myself.”  
  
Sam pulled Lucifer’s chair back before the archangel could say anything, he shoved books, notepads, and pencils out of the way and pushed Lucifer against the table. “Can I have you just for me, Lucifer?”  
  
Trapped between Sam and the table, the archangel stared at Sam before he blinked once. “Always, Sam. I will always give myself to you.” At those words, Sam sealed his lips to Lucifer’s. It was a small kiss without the strength both usually used on each other. No, it was soft and strangely innocent when Sam licked over Lucifer’s lower lip with the tip of his tongue, and it sounded like Lucifer was purring when he opened his lips for Sam to push his tongue into Lucifer’s cold mouth.  
  
Sam heard Lucifer groan when he pushed his tongue inside, and Sam used the moment, with Lucifer being distracted, to grip him around the hips and lift him onto the table.  
  
Standing, they were almost at the same height but with Lucifer sitting on the table, the archangel was shorter than Sam. Sam used the changed angle to deepen their kiss and bury one hand in the short dark blond hair of his archangel. He could feel Lucifer’s cold grace push against his senses and could feel frost starting to form around them.  
  
Breaking their kiss, Sam bent Lucifer’s back and started to place a line of soft kisses along the edge of Lucifer’s neck. The petals of the fire lily on Lucifer’s skin almost touched his throat and Sam licked over the dark red petals only to bite down on the soft skin that carried part of the living mark he had placed on Lucifer.  
  
Lucifer made a soft mewling sound when Sam’s teeth found his skin and as the archangel went completely pliant under Sam, the Protector growled in satisfaction. With one last hard bite that left marks on Lucifer’s surface, and a lick over the abused skin, Sam pulled back and lifted the hem of Lucifer’s t-shirt.  
  
Without a word, Lucifer lifted his arms and Sam pulled the t-shirt over his head and placed it behind Lucifer on the table. Carefully, Sam pushed Lucifer back until he lay stretched out on the table and the archangel looked at Sam with red glowing eyes.  
  


Sam held Lucifer’s burning gaze while he lowered his head and closed his lips around Lucifer’s nipple as used his hands to open Lucifer’s jeans. Gasping, Lucifer closed his eyes only to lay his hands on Sam’s shoulders. Sam sucked and bit down on the sensitive nipple while he opened Lucifer’s jeans and pushed it down enough that he could free Lucifer’s hard cock. Switching sides, Sam closed his lips around Lucifer’s, until now, neglected nipple while he started to stroke Lucifer’s cock. “Sam…” Lucifer’s voice was a hoarse whisper, and with a last lick to Lucifer’s nipple, Sam pulled back and looked down at him. “What, my angel? What do you want?” Sam never stopped his hand stroking Lucifer’s cock which was now wet with precum and Lucifer was thrusting up into Sam’s steady palm.  
  
An expression of urgency appeared on Lucifer’s face when he pulled himself upright with a tug to Sam’s antlers which had started to appear. Lucifer’s face was so close to Sam’s that he could feel his cold breath ghost over his face. Desperation played all over Lucifer’s face while he continued thrusting into Sam’s fist. “Need you, Sam. Please, I need you.” Nodding, Sam kissed Lucifer again and wrapped his other arm around Lucifer’s middle. “I know, Lucifer, my angel, I know. You’ll have me, I promise but first… first I want you to let go, for me.”  
  


Lucifer was panting in Sam’s embrace, but when Sam started to twist his wrist every time, he reached the sensitive head of Lucifer’s cock, the archangel began to shake in Sam’s arms. The archangel’s grace broke free from Lucifer’s hold when he couldn’t fight his orgasm any longer.  
  
Frost flowers started to bloom all around them on every surface. Meanwhile, Lucifer looked at Sam with big, almost black eyes, as his pupils had consumed nearly all color. Sam was still stroking Lucifer’s cock to prolong his orgasm as long as possible, and stripes of white marked the muscular chest of his archangel.  
  
When Lucifer let go of Sam’s antlers to let himself fall back onto the table, Sam chuckled and slowed down his hand until he stopped altogether. Lucifer lay on the table with his chest rising and falling in rapid patters while he sucked in as much air as he could even though he didn’t need it. Using the time while Lucifer was distracted, Sam stepped back and freed Lucifer from his jeans only to strip himself out of his pants as well.  
  
When Sam stepped back between Lucifer’s legs, the archangel looked at him with wide eyes. “Sam, please, now. I need you.” Nodding but remaining silent, Sam helped Lucifer to wrap his legs around Sam’s hip while Sam positioned his cock against Lucifer’s hole.  
  
One of the benefits of being archangel and protector mates, was that they could skip the prep and could go right to the part they were both carving.  
  
Slowly, Sam pushed against Lucifer’s hole and waited until Lucifer’s body opened to him. Slowly, Sam was able to thrust in, and without any hurry, Sam took his sweet time to let himself sink deep into Lucifer’s body. Under him, his archangel whimpered and tried to coax Sam into going faster, but Sam only smiled at him, placed a deep kiss on his lips and refused to go any quicker.  
  
When he had pushed halfway in, Sam pulled back almost all the way out and Lucifer made a distressed sound but just as slowly as a moment ago, Sam pushed back in until his hips were flush with Lucifer’s.  
  
A red flush covered Lucifer’s face, and Sam used the moment of closeness to suck small marks into the archangel’s skin while he pinched Lucifer’s nipples before he started to thrust into Lucifer’s cold body. A moan that sounded very much like _‘finally’_ left Lucifer’s lips and he bucked his body into Sam’s touch while Sam was grinding and thrusting into him.  
  
Sam had to move his body a bit, so he was able to bend down enough to bite down on Lucifer’s clavicle without hitting Lucifer with his antlers. The change of the angle forced a loud moan from Lucifer. Smiling, Sam nipped, licked and bit every piece of skin he could reach while Lucifer started to whimper, mewl and thrash under him.  
  
His pleasure was at the back of Sam’s mind while he thrust slow but deep into Lucifer’s tight body. Lucifer pulled hard on Sam’s hair and antlers. Desperation was a strong emotion on Lucifer’s face as he pushed himself closer to Sam. “Please, Sam… harder, more, _anything_. I’ll give you everything you want but… please I need more.”  
  
Shuddering at the way Lucifer was begging him, Sam felt his white fur appear on his back. “Everything, Lucifer?” Sam lifted his head, and he could feel the weight of his antlers, and he didn’t need a mirror to know how big they had grown.  
  
Lucifer nodded, leaning back on the table and offered his unprotected throat to Sam who growled deep at this display of submission from his archangel. Closing one hand around Lucifer’s neck until his long fingers touched the fire lily again, Sam held himself up with his other side when he started to give Lucifer what his archangel was begging for.  
  
Slowly, Sam pulled back out only to thrust back in hard and fast. What was left of the blue in Lucifer’s eyes was consumed by burning red as his grace pushed against his skin from the onset but Lucifer couldn’t do anything but let Sam take him.  
  
Sam tightened his grip around Lucifer’s neck only to press down on the fire lily mark without choking Lucifer. He wanted, no-- needed to hear every sound of pleasure he could coax from Lucifer.  
  
Lucifer gasped and pushed against Sam’s hold on him with every hard thrust back in. Every thrust forced more precum to drip down from Lucifer’s cock only to add it to the already present mess he had made of himself earlier. Neither Sam nor Lucifer cared about the mess between them. Both only stared at each other and when Sam let his powers push hard against Lucifer’s grace the archangel’s mark on his arm started to glow.  
  
The frost around them started to melt as Lucifer began to howl when Sam demanded another orgasm from his archangel. Snarling when Lucifer became even tighter around his cock as he came, Sam could barely wait when Lucifer’s orgasm created an even bigger mess between them before he allowed himself to let go.  
  
With his head thrown back, Sam marveled at the strength of his release and how his powers connected him to Lucifer’s grace just like their bodies were joined to each other.  
  
Exhausted after his powerful orgasm, Sam allowed himself to drop down onto Lucifer without caring for the mess between them. Lucifer was refreshingly cool against his own too-warm skin, and together they rested for a few minutes before Lucifer pushed against his shoulder.  
  
“Shower and bed, in that order,” the spent archangel mumbled, and Sam pulled his cock out only to watch his release drip out of Lucifer’s hole.  
  
Together they shared the shower Lucifer had requested, scalding hot, and washed each other. Lucifer seemed to be purring when Sam washed and cleaned him, and the archangel was watching him the whole time through half closed eyes.  
  
Together and wrapped around each other they fell asleep, and Sam enjoyed the feeling of Lucifer’s wings covering his body.  
  
But Sam wasn’t allowed to sleep for long when he met his brother on the dreamscape they could share as needed.  
  
Sam could still feel Lucifer’s body pressed against his own when he met his brother’s green wolf eyes. “There isn’t much time left, Sam. We have to leave soon.” Dean looked agitated, and while he could hear the call too, Sam couldn’t listen to it as Dean could.  
  


Shaking his head, Sam met his brother’s eyes. “. We’ve been ignoring the call for so long now, Dean, we still can wait a few more days.”  
  
Dean didn’t look convinced, but both knew that as long as Sam wasn’t done, they wouldn’t leave.


	3. Time to go

After his time with Lucifer Sam felt the power of the call much stronger. It was pulling and tugging at him, trying to lure him away into a different direction than he wanted to go. There was no feeling of threat behind it, and while Sam knew that he would reach the point where he couldn’t resist the call anymore, he still had some time left. He wouldn’t go without giving his mates something to remember him by, and he knew that Dean was doing the same.   
  
Their mates would be safe just like their world would be safe. Nothing would hurt them. After the Protectors, their angels were still the most powerful beings in this realm. While Castiel wasn’t as strong or powerful as the two archangels, he was still much stronger than a seraph of his rank should ever be. The most powerful of the last remaining angels.   
  
The others had returned hours ago, and feelings of happiness and the smell of something too sweet filled the air. When Sam walked past the kitchen, he could smell popcorn, and when looked into the living room, he spotted his brother, Castiel, and Lucifer with a Ramiel in the middle sitting on their couch watching an action movie while Dean was laughing at every explosion on the screen. No Gabriel to be seen.   
  
Frowning, Sam walked to their shared room only to find it empty and chaotic as usual; but still no Gabriel. Scratching himself under his jaw, Sam closed his eyes and focused his senses on the connection he had to Gabriel. _There_.   
  
The youngest archangel was in the observatory.   
  
Gabriel had claimed the observatory for himself years ago. The room was a chaotic space of things Gabriel had gathered through his long life, and sometimes he retreated to his refuge within the bunker. Through the connection, Sam could feel Gabriel’s good mood, and so he decided to join the archangel in his chaotic asylum.   
  
Climbing the ladder, Sam knocked against the metallic construction Gabriel had covered with thick rugs and furs. At the knocking, Gabriel looked up from what he’d been doing and a smile bright as the sun appeared on his face. “Sam-stag. What a nice surprise. Hop in.”   
  
Sam pulled himself up into the room without getting back to his feet. Things hung down from the ceiling, and some of them hung so low that Sam feared he would smash against them with his antlers. Because some items looked fragile, Sam crawled over the soft rugs before he threw himself onto a big, soft cushion next to Gabriel.   
  
A small wooden box stood in front of Gabriel with a screwdriver kit next to it. Looking up from the box, Sam met Gabriel’s eyes. “What’s that?” Sam nodded in the direction of the box without touching it. Smiling, Gabriel skimmed over the dark wood with careful fingers. “It was a gift I got from a young girl when I saved her from a Fea. It was back in the old world and a long time ago. She put it out on a window sill with a mug of milk and whispered at the stars that this is present for the one who saved her.   
  
Curious what a small girl would offer me; I took it. I was startled at first because it’s was a very rare gift. Those people weren’t rich. The following night, I came back and placed a bowl of honey on her window sill together with a bag of gold coins. I still remember her face when she found the honey. It was a rare treat back then and dangerous to get. She only ate a small piece every day and didn’t pay much attention to the gold. Her parents found the bag sometime later and asked her about it. She said the one who saved her left it behind. They used it to do something for the village. The girl’s descendants still live in their same area and work to help people. Sometimes I like to remember her even after she’s been gone for so long.”  
  
Gabriel picked the box up and activated a mechanism Sam couldn’t see from his position, but suddenly the box opened and two wooden figures came out. A wolf and fox were either chasing each other, or they were playing with each other, Sam couldn’t tell, and a soft melody rose from the box.  
  
The archangel smiled at the small musical box, and when the song finished, the closed the lid and wolf, and fox stopped their game.   
  
“Have you ever visited her heaven?” Sam looked up from the musical box at Gabriel’s face as the archangel put it away. “Yes, but only to peek at her and to make sure she’s fine. Her heaven is the same small and simple house where she gave me this gift. She’s happy, and that’s what matters. I left a bowl of honey behind again. I could hear her laughter when I left.”  
  
When Gabriel had put the music box away, Sam pulled the archangel down on the cushion and rolled them around until he was resting with his head propped up on his hands on Gabriel’s chest. The archangel chuckled and followed the line of Sam’s nose, eyebrows and jaw with his warm fingers. “I missed you the night we were out at the bar, Sam. Wasn’t the same with you missing. You know the people in town can see you like you are and don’t care.”  
  


Rubbing his face against Gabriel’s hand like an oversized cat, Sam lay his fingers on the flower marks he could see peeking out from Gabriel’s shirt. “I didn’t feel like going out and being surrounded by people. I needed some time alone with Lucifer.”   
  
Gabriel pulled one eyebrow up and tugged a few loose strands of hair out of Sam’s face. “Yeah, I saw that when I came back home. You didn’t want to let go of him while you were sleeping. I almost felt like a third wheel next to you two.”   
  
Lowering his eyes, Sam pushed against Gabriel’s hand again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want you feeling left out.” Gabriel chuckled in amusement as he lifted Sam’s head again. “Sam, as I already told you dozens of times, I understand that you and Lucifer are a special item and I feel neither left out nor forgotten or, hell, even jealous but… should you feel the need to make it up to me for abounding me for my dearest brother, I’m all game.”  
  
Now Gabriel was smirking, and an expression of mischief marked his face, and he suggestively wiggled his eyebrows.   
  


Laughing, Sam pulled himself up until his face was close to Gabriel’s and they were separated by maybe an inch of space between them. “Do you want me to make it up to you, Gabriel?” Gabriel gave Sam his best puppy expression, but Sam could feel Gabriel’s cock against his belly. “You could start with sucking my cock? That would be a great start to making it up to me.” Gabriel even faked a teary sniffle, but Sam saw right through it and shook his head while he tugged on Gabriel’s clothes. “Help me with these? I don’t want to get up.”   
  
Now grinning like the pagan he still was, Gabriel lifted his hand, snapped once and both of them were buck naked.   
  
Smiling, Sam closed his eyes and shook his head once. He could feel his antlers disappear for the time being before he pushed himself downwards and closed his lips around Gabriel’s half hard cock. Above him, Gabriel made a hissing sound at the sudden pleasure, and Sam was sure he heard something around them rip and looked up at Gabriel with the archangel’s cock between his lips.   
  
Gabriel’s eyes glowed golden, and he had his hands buried in the many large and small cushions around them, but Sam could see that he had used too much strength and two pillows fell victim to him. Smirking up at Gabriel, Sam wrapped his tongue around Gabriel’s fully hard cock before he lifted himself and sucked Gabriel down all the way until Sam could press his face against Gabriel’s groin.   
  
“Christ… Sam.” Gabriel’s voice was deeper than usual, and Sam could hear a faint thunder in the distance. Chuckling, Sam pulled off Gabriel’s cock only to hold him up with one hand and start to lick over the sensitive underside of Gabriel’s hard cock.   
  
Holding the archangel’s gaze was easy while Sam treated Gabriel’s cock like a lollypop. He varied between sucking him down only to pull off again and treat him with kitten licks. Gabriel, meanwhile, moaned loudly and threw his head back into the cushions as more died under the strength of his grip.   
  
“You are a damn tease, Sam Winchester.” Gabriel pressed the words out between clenched teeth and Sam pulled off his cock with a wet slurp only to lick over Gabriel’s balls. “Like you have any room to talk, Gabriel. I learned from the best after all.”   
  
The reply Gabriel wanted to give died in a whimper as Sam sucked one of his balls into his mouth and pressed two of his fingers against Gabriel’s rim. “Fuck…” The one word Gabriel whispered was more praise than anything else as Sam let go of Gabriel only to suck his hard cock back into his mouth at a slow pace.   
  
The archangel was cursing and ripping more cushions apart, but Gabriel made choked off the sound when Sam pushed his long fingers into Gabriel’s hole. Sam heard Gabriel say something else, something like _‘finally’_ but he wasn’t sure, and so he shrugged his shoulders and tried to find the small bundle of nerves that would make Gabriel curse.  
  
When Sam found his archangel’s prostate and pressed down on it, Gabriel cursed in a way an archangel shouldn’t and pushed his cock deeper into Sam’s mouth. Growling, Sam allowed Gabriel enough room to move and Sam rewarded every thrust of Gabriel's hips with another push of his fingers down on Gabriel’s prostate.   
  
Sam could feel Gabriel start to shake under him and he knew Gabriel was close. Pulling off again with another slurp, Sam pulled back from Gabriel a second before he had reached his orgasm. The archangel snarled, and golden eyes met amused hazel ones while Gabriel was breathing like a racing horse. “Fucking tease! Has nobody ever told you that it’s not nice to leave a guy like this?”   
  
Sam climbed into Gabriel’s lap and rubbed his erection against Gabriel’s. “But what if I have a different idea for you, Gabriel?”   
  
Lifting himself up, Sam reached between their bodies held Gabriel’s cock I place until he could feel Gabriel against his hole. “Maybe I want something else for you besides coming in my mouth?” Sam whispered into Gabriel’s ear while he lowered himself slowly down onto Gabriel’s cock.   
  
Gabriel wasn’t as hung as Lucifer, but he had more girth to deal with than his brother. Sam hissed in pleasure when he felt Gabriel enter and stretch him. Sam lay his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, and while Sam couldn’t see it, he could feel the flowers on Gabriel’s arm start to move as they opened their blossoms.   
  
Sam watched Gabriel’s face whose eyes focused on the point where his cock split Sam open. Slowly, Sam lowered himself, and when he was finally sitting in Gabriel’s lap with Gabriel’s thick cock buried deep within his body, Sam took a deep breath. He felt stretched, full and there was the smallest bit of pain within the pleasure — just the way Sam loved it.   
  
Gabriel looked up at Sam with glowing eyes before he placed his hand on the mark he had left on Sam’s ribs all those years ago. The second their skin touched a wave of pleasure raced through Sam and out of reflex, he started to lift his hips before he lowered himself back down again.   
  
The open connection between them allowed Sam to feel Gabriel’s pleasure like his own and every small drag over his tender insides made Sam hiss and moan. Leaning back, Sam propped himself with one hand while he closed his other one around his cock as he never stopped the movement of his hips. Gabriel let his hand remain resting on his handprint while he slapped Sam’s hand away to replace it with his own.   
  
“You look so good like this Sam. My cock splitting you open while I can feel every bit of your pleasure.” Gabriel’s face was dark, and Sam’s breath hitched as he heard thunder roll over the sky outside and rain started to hammer against the metal roof. Energy from them both started to gather in the room while the storm raged outside.   
  
“The way you’re  showing yourself off to me, taking my cock while you’re fucking yourself on it, using me.”   
  
Gasping, as Gabriel pushed himself up while Sam was pushing himself down, and the archangel twisted his hand, Sam heard a ripping noise again only to find out it was himself this time who ripped a small cushion under him apart.   
  
Gabriel didn’t stop his thrusts, keeping in sync of Sam’s movements together with speeding up his hand. The thunder became louder and louder together with the hard hammering of the rain on the metal roof.   
  
Suddenly, Gabriel let go of Sam’s cock but pulled Sam down hard while he kept his hand away from his mark on Sam’s ribs.   
  
Everything stopped for Sam, and the only thing he could see was Gabriel’s glowing eyes before everything was drowned in the sound of thunder, the hammering of the rain and light blinding him when Sam was surprised by the power of his orgasm. His, and Gabriel’s screams, died in the heart of the storm raging over the forest, created by a Protector and his archangel.  
  
…  
  
Sam woke up to someone touching him. Blinking slowly, Sam needed a moment to wake up before his eyes focused on his brother. Looking around, Sam became aware that the was still in the observatory and Gabriel was deep asleep next to him. He was sleeping too soundly for an archangel. Typically, his angels woke up the second Sam was awake.   
  
Sitting up, Sam looked at his brother who looked at him with almost distant eyes.  
  
“It’s time. We can’t ignore the call any longer.” Sam didn’t answer but looked at the sleeping Gabriel. “How long will we be gone, Dean?” Dean shook himself like a wet wolf and Sam saw that his brother had trouble focusing on something.   
  
“I don’t know. Same as I don’t know if our delay will prolong the time we _have_ to be away, but we have to go. _Now_.”  
  
Nodding, Sam pressed a kiss to Gabriel’s temple and allowed himself a moment to linger before he got up. The bunker was eerily silent, and Dean growled when Sam stopped at the library. Lucifer was sleeping over a book with a pencil in his hand. Walking up to his other archangel, Sam gave Lucifer the same kiss he had given Gabriel before he turned around to join his brother who was still waiting for him in the hallway.  
  
Together, Sam and Dean left the bunker and their sleeping angels, mates, behind. They were gone in a flash of light the second they left the bunker.


	4. Gone

Lucifer woke up with a deep sense of wrongness in his grace. Startled, he sat up and lost the pen he held in his hand while working on the translation. Looking around, he couldn’t see anything that was off or out of place, but something was wrong.   
  
Getting out of his chair, Lucifer listened for sounds from the other residents of the bunker. Nothing but silence answered. Frowning, Lucifer stepped into the hallway, but even there, nothing was different yet he couldn’t shake off the feeling of wrongness, that something wasn’t as it should be.   
  
Slowly and with his senses and grace on high alert, Lucifer walked through the bunker. Never during his time in the bunker had he felt so… out of place or… lonely.   
  
When Lucifer walked into the kitchen, everything looked the same as they left it this morning. Empty mugs on the table, some leftover muffins from Dean, Sam’s book. The kitchen felt cold to Lucifer, like the room had lost its warmth, its heart. Lucifer still couldn’t hear any sounds within the walls of the bunker.   
  
Lucifer was about to leave the kitchen when his eyes fell on the clock mounted to the wall which Dean had hung up years ago. The archangel never understood the humor with which Dean had hung the clock. It showed a comic dog being chased by a ghost, but the dog wasn’t the reason for Lucifer’s irritation; it was the time the clock displayed.   
  
It had been morning when Lucifer had started to work on the translation, but the clock showed clearly that it was late afternoon. The archangel had lost hours of his day. Alarmed, Lucifer tried to recall the last thing he remembered. He had been sitting in the library, working on the translation for Sam’s collection and then suddenly… nothing; followed by a deep sense of wrongness when he woke up.   
  
Alarmed, Lucifer sent his grace out without thinking and without toning it down. His grace hit against two others he knew all too well. Gabriel was still in the observatory, and Castiel seemed to be in the garage.   
  
Thinking fast, Lucifer made a decision and ran up to the observatory since it was closer. Sprinting down the hallway; he still didn’t know what happened and didn’t want to risk taking flight. Racing up the ladder, Lucifer found Gabriel covered by a blanket in a nest of torn apart cushions.   
  
Frowning, Lucifer gripped his brother by the shoulders. He saw the marks on Gabriel’s skin, and when Lucifer’s hand wearing Sam’s mark touched Gabriel’s equally marked skin, the younger archangel took a deep and startled breath and sat up straight in his makeshift nest.   
  
Eyes glowing greener than usual, tracked everything in the room until they fell on Lucifer who still hadn’t let go of him. Gabriel blinked and the green was gone from his eyes and replaced by his usual whiskey-colored eyes.   
  
Gabriel looked around the room again before his eyes fell on the empty spot next to him. “Where’s Sam? Why are you here Lucifer?” Had Sam been here? It hit Lucifer like a brick. That was what was wrong in the bunker; the Protectors weren’t there.   
  
“I don’t know where Sam is, but I know for sure that Sam and Dean are not here and we are missing hours of time. What is the last thing you remember, Gabriel?” With an annoyed face, Gabriel got up and pulled his pants back on before he looked around the room again. His eyes stopped on the ripped apart cushions.   
  
“Sam came to me. He was… I don’t know… he said he wanted to make it up to me for staying at home when I went out with Dean, Cas, and Ramiel. I told him I missed him this evening. He apologized for making me feel left out, and I told him that I don’t feel like that and that I understand the connection you two share is something different. We had sex and then… nothing until you woke me up.” A chill ran through Lucifer’s grace as what Gabriel was describing fit what he had experienced. Lucifer met his brother’s eyes, and he was sure he wore the same expression as Gabriel.   
  
“What happened here, Lucifer?” The older archangel shook his head. “I have no idea. I remember going into the library after breakfast and going back to my translating. I can’t even remember if I started it. I woke up because something felt off and when I walked into the kitchen and looked at Dean’s stupid clock, I noticed that hours had passed. I sent my grace out and found you and Castiel. Castiel is down in the garage. We should go and get him. I can’t find any traces of Sam and Dean in the bunker.”  
  
Alarmed, Gabriel sent his grace out, and Lucifer could feel the vibrant melody of his brother’s grace pass over him. Irritation played over Gabriel’s features. “You are right, Lucifer. I can feel Castiel down in the garage, but neither Sam nor Dean are in the bunker. We’ll go down to check on Castiel, and then we leave the bunker to check outside. I can’t imagine anything that could be more powerful than the barrier Sam had built around the forest.”  
  
That was what worried Lucifer. What could have enough strength to get past the barrier, knock archangels out and make the two protectors disappear?   
  
Together, the archangels walked through the bunker, their blades in-hand but Lucifer still couldn’t shake off the feeling of wrongness. Once they reached the door to the garage, Lucifer nodded first at the door and then to Gabriel. With a grim expression on his face, Gabriel gave Lucifer a clipped nod and opened the door suddenly and with too much force. The door smashed against the wall and broke apart, leaving a door-sized imprint in the wall.   
  
Lucifer, meanwhile, stepped through the open and smashed apart door. Immediately he spotted the seraph in the room. Castiel’s prone form lay on the ground next to the Impala. With Gabriel guarding his back, Lucifer scanned the room with his grace and eyes while he walked over to Castiel. When he couldn’t feel anything off except for the missing Protectors, Lucifer kneeled next to Castiel’s fallen form and closed his hand around the seraph’s wrist.   
  


Castiel’s grace, so very much like Lucifer’s, reacted to the touch and when Castiel woke up again, he lifted his head only to drag his hand through his hair in a way Lucifer had seen Dean do every day. Looking up, Lucifer met Castiel’s bewildered eyes. Banishing his sword, Lucifer helped Castiel sit up. When it looked like Gabriel came to the same conclusion as Lucifer that nobody except them were in the room, he sent his sword away and knelt at Castiel’s other side.   
  
Grunting, Castiel sat up and leaned with his back against the Impala. A part of Lucifer was glad to see the car in its usual place, but it still didn’t mean anything. Maybe Sam had teleported them somewhere.   
  
Castiel’s eye was still unfocused, but he didn’t shake off Lucifer’s hand around his wrist, and with his other hand, Castiel searched for Gabriel out of pure instinct. When his hand found Gabriel’s arm, the seraph closed his long fingers around Gabriel’s skin until it turned white under the force Castiel used in his puzzled state.   
  
The seraph shook himself several times before he lifted his head to look at the archangels in front of him. “What happened? Are we under attack? Are you two okay? Where are Sam and Dean?” Castiel’s eyes were still unfocused, but he was already falling back into his training as a soldier, and his life with two archangels and the Protectors had made him much stronger.   
  
“Cas, look at me.” Gabriel covered Castiel’s hand on his arm with his hand while he directed Castiel’s face in his direction. “We don’t know what happened. Lucifer woke up first, he then woke me up and then we came after you. Sam and Dean are not in the bunker.”  
  
The seraph frowned at Gabriel’s words and used the grip he had on both archangels to try and pull himself to his feet. Lucifer wasn’t sure if this was a good idea but he went with Castiel’s wish and steadied the younger angel when he came to his feet.   
  
“What is your last memory before everything turned black, Castiel?” Castiel let go of Gabriel to to place his now empty hand on Lucifer’s arm still holding onto his wrist. “I was looking for Dean.” Castiel’s voice seemed distant, and he tilted his head in the birdlike way of his when he tried to understand something. A habit Castiel still hadn’t lost despite his age. “Yes, I was looking for Dean. I thought I saw him go down into the garage but I when I came here, I didn’t see him.”   
  
Castiel took a deep breath, let go of Lucifer and looked from one archangel to the other. “I felt something. It felt like a wave that rolled through the bunker. Not grace, not magic. It felt too wild for that. It almost felt like… the powers of the Protectors but it felt… weird. The wave hit me, and everything turned black. The next thing I remember is your faces.”  
  
Castiel looked as unhappy as all of them felt, but thanks to the seraph they now had some more information.   
  
“I felt nothing like that. No wave or a feeling of power. It’s just like someone knocked me out and I lost a few hours until Lucifer woke me up. Nothing in-between.” Gabriel looked down at his left arm and the flowers marking his skin. While Gabriel looked like he was deep in his thoughts, Lucifer noticed something.   
  
Looking down at his right arm, he saw the same as on his own skin. “The flowers, Gabriel, look at Sam’s flowers.” Lucifer lifted his arm and held it next to Gabriel’s, and that was the second the others saw it too.   
  
“The flowers have closed their blossoms.” Castiel closed his hands around his brothers’ wrists, and all three of them looked at the still bright markings, but Castiel was right; every flower had closed their buds. The flowers didn’t even react to Castiel’s touch, and they usually reacted to every kind of interaction within their small family, but nothing happened.   
  
It was Gabriel who pulled his arm out of Castiel’s grip and with a snap he covered his arms with a dark jacket. “We have no idea what this means, but we need to do something and search for them. Cas, you check upstairs and ask your little shadow. Maybe Ramiel knows something. She seems to have a weird connection to Sam because of the Spark she carries. Lucifer check the area within the barrier, and because I’m the fastest of us, I will take a long tour and check their usual spots all over the world. We will meet here again we when we’re done.”  
  
In a loud rustle of feathers and wings, the archangels and the seraph separated.   
  
…

  
  
Lucifer had flown often through the barrier. The world within the barricade seemed to be endless and formless, almost chaotic because everything existed within a small space and was still so full and open. Sometimes, in his dark moments, the world within the barrier reminded him so much of the Cage that Lucifer had to leave. Sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for days, but he always came back home.   
  
As Lucifer was now flying through the barrier, he noticed the same thing he had seen on his and Gabriel’s arm. The entire world within the barrier seemed to be sleeping.   
  
No wind rustled in the trees; the rivers were silent and so slow that Lucifer thought they were frozen. He spotted animals curled together in their sleep. Birds sat in the trees with their heads hiding under their wings and the plants all over the area seemed to be in hibernation. Their blossoms and leaves curled together.   
  
It was eerie to fly through a place that was so… silent.   
  
Lucifer flew through the barrier to check the surrounding area, but the second he flew past the blockade, he was met with a multiplicity of sounds. So, it was only within the boundary that everything was sleeping.   
  
Lucifer returned with a churning feeling in his grace to the bunker.   
  
…  
  
He was the first to return to their home, but Lucifer felt entirely out of place. Even with everyone asleep it never felt so empty and silent.   
  
To fight the strange feeling off, Lucifer flipped the radio in the kitchen on without really listening to the music. It didn’t help, but only seconds later Gabriel appeared. His brother’s hair was tousled because Gabriel had flown so fast, but the expression on his brother’s face confirmed what Lucifer had been thinking. “Nothing?” Gabriel shook his head, and while Lucifer had expected this answer, it still hurt.   
  
Over an hour later Castiel appeared with a disheveled looking Ramiel clinging to his arm. The little angel stumbled when they landed, but Castiel caught her around the shoulders before she could fall. Castiel led Ramiel to the table and made her sit down before he snapped and a mug full of tea appeared in front of her. A trait all angels had adopted from the Winchesters, to enjoy things like drinks and food. Ramiel stayed away from coffee, too bitter for her taste, but the little angel of hope loved tea.   
  
With shaking hands, Ramiel took the mug from the table and from the steam rising from the cup Lucifer could see that her hands were still shaking. Castiel didn’t leave Ramiel’s side, but he looked up to meet the gaze of the two archangels.   
  
“When I appeared upstairs, I couldn’t find Ramiel nor Joshua. It was Joshua who found me, and he led me to Ramiel. They had been visiting the personal heaven of an artist when Ramiel suddenly lost consciousness and didn’t react to any of his attempts to wake her. Joshua told me that he felt my presence and went to get me.” Castiel stopped speaking when Ramiel buried her small hand in the labels of his trench coat. “There was a light out of nowhere. It didn’t feel like anything I’ve ever felt before. It was bright, beautiful. It didn’t feel like our Father’s light, it was colder, and reminded me of the Lightbringer than anything else. I think I could hear someone laugh. It was a warm sound and didn’t fit the light at all, but when I wanted to ask what it was… nothing. I can’t remember anything until Castiel woke me up.”   
  
More parts for their puzzle but they still had no answer to Ramiel’s next question. “What happened? Where are the Protectors?” Every angel in the room shook their head at Ramiel’s question. “We don’t know. We split up to look for them but found nothing. The only thing I was able to find was a sleeping forest within the barrier. Every animal, plant, hell, even the water seems to be sleeping. Outside of the barrier, everything is awake but inside of it… it’s like everything fell into a winter’s sleep.”  
  
Castiel’s expression was grim when he walked around Ramiel to face the archangels. “After I awoke, I went to Robert Singers heaven to talk to him. I hoped he would know something because Sam and Dean had visited him often. He said he hadn’t noticed anything out of place with them until I mentioned what happened to Ramiel and what she had seen before she lost consciousness. Bobby remembered one of their visits. Sam and Dean seemed to be distracted by something, it looked like they were listening to something and he is sure he heard Sam say something to Dean. Something like ‘ _There is still enough time left for us_ ’ be he isn’t sure about the exact wording, and he couldn’t hear if Dean answered Sam. So, something was going on with them, but why didn’t they tell us about it?”   
  
That was the elephant in the room, but before anyone could answer Castiel’s question, a loud noise sounded from the main hall followed by what sounded like someone falling down the stairs, and light bulbs exploded all around them.   
  
Growling, Lucifer materialized his wings, and a cold light started to illuminate the room. He could hear Ramiel gasp, and when he looked over to the small angel, she stared at him with wonder all over her face. Lucifer knew that his wings didn’t look like they used to any more; be but thanks to Sam, Lucifer thought of his wings as even more beautiful than before his fall.   
  
Before his fall, his wings used to be white, completely and blinding white. After his fall, the hellfire had started to burn his wings, and his feathers had adapted to the conditions of hell. Sam had stopped the fire changing his wings, and now Lucifer’s feathers wore the colors of Heaven, Hell, and his mate.   
  
Summoning his blade, Lucifer stepped into the hallway, and the light illuminating from his wings lightened the entrance so everyone was able to see. Together, they made their way into the main hall. The light fell into the room through the open door, but otherwise, the place lay in complete darkness until Lucifer spread his wings and his light banished every shadow in the area.   
  
At the bottom of the stairs, the crumpled form of someone lay on the ground. Lucifer searched Gabriel’s eyes, and the other archangel gave him a clipped nod before he walked around Lucifer’s still visible wings.   
  
Gabriel hunkered down next to the fallen person and carefully touched them on the arm only to pull his hand away with a hiss and jump back. Gabriel made a sound between a snarl and a hiss and his eyes glowed in a wild mix of green and golden.   
  
Lifting his blade at his brother’s reaction, Lucifer was prepared to annihilate everything and everyone who dared to enter their home, when the person on the ground started to move.  
  
With a painful groan, the person, a man Lucifer recognized, turned around and looked at him. Bewildered grey-green eyes met Lucifer’s blue ones, and while Lucifer remembered the face in front of him, it was the grace Lucifer could see behind the almost panicked looking eyes that made Lucifer snarl.  
  
“ _Michael._ ”


	5. Down under

When Lucifer realized he was staring down at his brother, at Michael, everything from the cage rushed back. The moment of utter confusion when Sam had wrenched back control over their body, the opening of the portal, Michael who tried to stop Sam from throwing himself down into the cage, the second fall of his existence and finally, what Michael tried to do to Sam…  
  
Snarling, Lucifer gripped Michael by the throat and flung him hard across the room. The oldest archangel slammed against the wall with a sickening crunch and even before he hit the ground, Lucifer had crossed the room only to slam Michael face first into the wall.   
  
He had forgotten about the most things, had chosen to forget them when Sam had broken him out of the cage again. Once, Lucifer had asked Sam if Michael could break through his new seal, the oak tree Sam had planted in the heart of Hell, but Sam had only shaken his head, and the shadows of his antlers had looked so much alive at that moment that Lucifer could still remember them. Sam had said that Michael wouldn’t be able to break either the cage or the oak tree and Lucifer had believed Sam. Sam would never lie to him.  
  


Yet, Michael was free, and Sam was gone for an unknown reason. All of this raced through Lucifer’s mind in the fraction of a second as he still smashed Michael’s face against the wall. Michael was neither fighting back nor defending himself but Lucifer didn’t care. He was too angry, too hurt, also confused by the situation to care for such things.  
  
Letting go of Michael, Lucifer made him drop to the ground only to lift him again with the help of his wing. Taking a step back, Lucifer curved his wing inwards, and his feathers had turned into something akin to his archangel blade as he shoved his long primary feathers against Michael’s jaw to lift him.   
  
The oldest of the archangels started to struggle and tried to pry Lucifer’s feathers away from his skin when a dark and calculating part in Lucifer noticed how the cold of his feathers was burning his brother’s skin.   
  
Snarling again, Lucifer stretched his other wing. The anatomy of his wings made it impossible to step closer to Michael so he could deliver the final blow up close, but ripping Michael’s chest and what was left of his grace apart with his wings would be sufficient. After all, Michael had tried to destroy Lucifer’s wings when he had kicked him out of Heaven.  
  
Wing stretched, and feathers splayed wide for the final blow, Lucifer enjoyed the fear he could see in Michael’s eyes before he snapped his wing forward to bury the hard and sharp feathers into his brother’s vessel.  
  
“Lucifer, stop!”  
  
It wasn’t the suddenly appearing weight on his back, or the voice talking to him, it was Gabriel throwing himself between Lucifer’s deadly feathers and Michael that made the Lightbringer stop.   
  
Snarling, Lucifer pulled his wings back and shook himself. The weight from his back vanished, and distantly he noticed that it had been Castiel who had tried to stop him.   
  
Gabriel stood with his hands raised in the air between Lucifer and Michael, and Lucifer had only stopped because this situation resembled a different one. One, where Gabriel hadn’t been able to walk away. Where he had killed Gabriel.   
  
“Lucifer, brother, listen. I understand, trust me, I completely understand your desire to hurt him and should Micky-boy be unable to prove himself to us. I won’t step between the two of you again, but we need to know why he is here now.”   
  
Lucifer looked at Gabriel, and while he still hadn’t lowered his hands, Lucifer wanted to throw him aside and finish what he had started with Michael. Michael, who was hiding behind Gabriel as he sat coughing on the ground.   
  
Growling, Lucifer turned around and climbed the stairs. He couldn’t be in Michael’s presence any longer, or he would finish his work and kill his older brother for good. He heard Gabriel call after him, but Lucifer neither listened nor stopped for Gabriel. He threw the heavy door to the bunker shut behind him and walked into the forest.   
  
It was too quiet outside in the forest, just like within the walls of the bunker. The laughter and the bickering of the Protectors were missing, and it hurt Lucifer in a way he never thought could be possible for an archangel.   
  
His steps on the dry leaves had never been this loud in their forest. Regularly, the rustle of the leaves drowned in the sounds of the woods. The singing of the birds, the chirping of the insects, the sounds of the mammals; but now, nothing. Just the loo loud rustle of the leaves following every of Lucifer’s steps.   
  
His hate for his older brother followed Lucifer deep into the forest and frost started to crawl through it. Lucifer had managed to forget most of the things that happened in the cage, or so he thought. He had shoved it into a far corner of his mind, and when he had faced Michael, completely unexpectedly, everything came back like a flood.   
  
Looking up, Lucifer noticed that he had reached Sam’s clearing. Usually, he would never set foot into Sam’s clearing. It was the one place that was completely Sam’s and no one; not even Dean entered it. Sam could invite you, but even that happened rarely. It always felt like something was holding everyone off, but when Lucifer looked around the forest now, he couldn’t feel anything repelling him from entering the area.   
  
Stepping over the fallen log that marked the clearing, Lucifer looked around it. There was the small spring, no soft murmur of the water was to hear, and the ground was covered in thick moss. There was no trace of the magic or the power that generally inhabited the place.   
  
Sighing heavily, Lucifer covered his eyes with his hand. What had happened today? First, he had lost hours because something or someone managed to knock him, an archangel, out dead cold, then Sam and Dean vanished while Michael reappeared.   
  
When Lucifer lowered his head, and he looked down on the ground, the green moss now covered with a thin layer of frost, he noticed the rabbit and the fox sleeping in the clearing. The fox had rolled his more significant body around the rabbit to share his body heat with the smaller creature which was usually his prey. Strangely, Lucifer remembered the little animal from his first visit in the forest. Years ago, and these two still were still alive and resting together.   
  
A sound behind Lucifer made him turn around, but it was once again Gabriel with his hands held up. “I come to talk, nothing more.” Gabriel looked weary, and Lucifer couldn’t resent Gabriel his composure.   
****  
“I feel like I should apologize to you, Gabriel.” Lucifer felt drained. He had never noticed how his whole being depended on Sam being around him and with Sam gone, Lucifer felt lost.  
  
“We can skip the apologies if you tell me what happened in the cage, Lucifer. You didn’t go all nuclear on our siblings when we visited Heaven all those years ago, but you see Michael for one second decide to nuke him. Why?” Lucifer looked at Gabriel, and he understood that he had been selfish and blind to his brothers’ distress. Gabriel was suffering differently with Sam gone, but he was suffering nevertheless.   
  
“When Sam managed to throw me back into the cage, he managed to pull Michael along with us. Together, Michael and I fell back into the Cage. Sam was with me just like the youngest of the Winchester bloodline was with Michael. I think his name was Adam.” Gabriel frowned at Lucifer and finally lowered his hands. “Was? What happened to Adam Milligan?”  
  
Lucifer laughed, but there was no humor in his voice.   
  
“Michael happened, Gabriel, the Cage happened. I was used to the Cage. I had endured more time in the Cage than outside of it, and its way to twist your mind and torture you didn’t affect me in the same ways it affected Michael. When we fell back into the Cage, the impact separated us archangels from our vessels. I knew that Sam would never survive the Cage. While the Cage was never made to contain a human, it wasn’t made to hold two archangels and two humans either. The Cage was made for me, my prison.”  
  
Gabriel nodded and pointed at Lucifer. “You managed to protect Sam against the Cage.”   
  
Lucifer ground his teeth together. “Most of the time I managed to protect Sam against the Cage but… I failed too often to protect him against Michael.” Now Gabriel looked surprised. “What did Michael do?” Gold and green powers started to glow in Gabriel’s eyes. “Michael went insane. The Cage twisted and mangled his mind, and in his clear moments, he blamed Sam for it. He hurt Sam, and when Sam was at his most vulnerable, the Cage was able to hurt him as well. I would fight Michael off every time and heal Sam, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to keep him sane and well forever. That was when Castiel came to save Sam and made a fatal mistake. Castiel only took his body but not his soul. I tried to warn him, but I think he feared me too much to look back. I protected Sam within my grace and healed the wounds the Cage and Michael inflicted, but I could see him falling apart, Gabriel. I was forced to watch Sam die piece by piece.”  
  
Lucifer had to stop and close his eyes. That was part of the things he had wanted to forget. The way Sam’s beautiful soul was breaking apart right in front of him.   
  
“When… when Death finally came to bring Sam’s soul back topside as well. I mentioned to the Horseman that Sam might be too weak for it, and should Sam’s soul die on his way back to his body I would rip first my brother apart, then the Cage and then what’s left of this world. Nothing would withstand my wrath should Sam die because of my foolishness. When Sam’s body and soul became one again, I knew the very moment it happened because of the amounts of grace I had to use to heal both many times. Michael wasn’t as generous as I and didn’t protect his vessel against the Cage. I don’t know for sure when it happened, but I know that Michael’s vessel was ripped apart by his powers shortly after we fell. I don’t know what happened to the boy’s soul. I always hoped Death took him because the Horseman stayed a moment longer after I left him behind.”  
  
Behind him, Gabriel growled but said nothing for a few minutes.   
  


“This would explain why Michael isn’t wearing the youngest Winchester as a prom dress, but I hate how it only adds more to the pile of things we don’t know.”  
  
Turning around, Lucifer crossed the clearing and stepped over the log as Gabriel hadn’t passed the barrier to Sam’s clearing. “What do you mean?” Gabriel gave Lucifer one of Sam’s bitch faces. “I will write it off as forgotten because you were raging like mad that you didn’t notice it, but Michael isn’t wearing Adam Milligan but a young version of John Winchester for a vessel. I left him in Cassie’s care so I could check on you, but I know that something is off with his vessel. It doesn’t feel like a vessel usually feels like. More like my own and my vessel which was made especially for me. We should go back. Michael is so low on grace that calling him an angel gives him too much credit, but I don’t want to leave Castiel alone with him for too long.”   
  
Nodding, the two archangels walked back to silence, and the sound of the door to the bunker being pulled open was unnaturally loud. Gabriel snapped, and the door moved without making noise but when they reached the end of the stairs, neither Castiel nor Michael was to be seen.  
  
Sending his grace out once more, Lucifer found both of them in the library.  
  
When they walked into the so much loved room, Castiel stepped back from Michael who was sitting on the table and staring into nothingness.   
  
Castiel held a used rag in his hand he showed off to the two archangels. “I have no explanation for our brother’s return, and he doesn’t speak, and when he does speak, it makes no sense. What I know is this. His vessel isn’t really John Winchester, but something created out of blood but mostly out of magic and something formable. Look.”   
  
The seraph held the rag up, and flecks of green marked the white material. “Michael doesn’t bleed red but green which gives me the impression that Sam and Dean have something to do with the creation of Michael’s vessel. He doesn’t heal like he’s supposed to considering his rank as an archangel. I don’t know anything about the nature of his vessel, and so I’m unable to heal the damage Lucifer has inflicted on him. Either Michael needs to heal on his own, or he needs one of the Protectors to heal him.”  
  
“The Protectors are sleeping.”  
  
Slowly, the two archangels and the seraph looked at Michael who was staring at the wall. “What did you say, Michael?” Michael turned around and looked at Gabriel before he hopped off the table. His legs gave in, but he caught himself just in time and pulled himself up. On wobbly legs, Michael crossed the distance between them and took Gabriel’s hand without looking at Lucifer.   
  
“Flowers, there were so many flowers, just like this.” Michael touched the flowers marking Gabriel’s skin. “They came to me, chased me because I had to leave, that’s what they told me. They had moved the tree away, the one who closed the hole. They gave me a body and told me where to go. The one with the antlers and the one with the green eyes are sleeping where I was locked away. It smelled funny there, flowers and something sour.”   
  
Michael let go of Gabriel’s hand and stepped back. Stunned, all three of them stared at the insane archangel. “The Cage. Are you talking about the Cage Michael?” Lucifer had to know. Why should Sam and Dean go down to the Cage and release Michael? Sam had promised him that he would never release Michael without asking him first… and what did Michael mean with the Protectors are sleeping?  
  
But Michael didn’t answer. When Lucifer spoke to him, he started to whimper and backed off until his back hit the table and then he crawled under the table under the watchful eyes of everyone else in the room.  
  
“We need to check the Cage.”   
  
Neither of them knew who spoke first when they all suggested the same thing.


	6. Of Sulfur and Flowers

It was evident that they had to descent down to Hell to check what Michael just had told them but the waste of time arguing who should go annoyed Lucifer to no end. He saw no reason why he shouldn’t go of all people. Hell was, after all, still his domain. Gabriel didn’t want Lucifer to go for some reason. 

It was Castiel who was the voice of reason to the two arguing archangels. 

“Someone needs to stay behind to keep an eye on Michael. He seems to be afraid of both of you but especially of Lucifer. You two descend to Hell to check if what Michael said is true and the Winchesters are indeed in the Cage. If he spoke the truth, we need to figure out why they have chosen to go into the Cage without telling us.”

Lucifer looked at Gabriel who pulled another Sam-worthy bitch face, but when they both looked at Michael, they had no other choice but to agree to Castiel’s plan. The seraph was able to coax Michael out from under the table, but now the oldest archangel was hiding behind Castiel’s broad shoulders and looked at the other two archangels with fear in his eyes. 

Glaring at Michael, Lucifer summoned his blade. He wouldn’t need it on the trip to Hell, and he would feel safer with the knowledge that Castiel had something that would kill even an archangel. Lucifer held his blade in front of Castiel while his eyes never left Michael’s who was still hiding behind Castiel but had taken a step back as Lucifer stepped closer to the seraph. 

“Take my blade just in case Michael turns into a bigger problem while Gabriel and I are gone. Should we be right at the Cage when you call us, we can’t appear by your side. I know that you are stronger than you should be Castiel, but I would feel better leaving you behind with my blade.” 

Lucifer had no problem admitting that he feared for Castiel’s safety with Michael alone in the bunker. He had grown to love the little seraph with his stoic expression most of the time, and he saw much of himself in Castiel. 

 

Castiel looked over his shoulder at Michael who had fled under the table again when he felt the heavy stares of three angels on him. Nodding, Castiel took the offered blade and hid it in his trench coat. 

“Hurry brothers. I hope you’ll find the answer we seek.” Lucifer and Gabriel nodded at Castiel before Lucifer gripped Gabriel tight around the shoulder. They left in a rustle of feathers.

…

They appeared in a gust of wind in Detroit. As ironic as it was, the Winchesters had closed every open Gate down to Hell but the one in Detroit. Demons could still be summoned on crossroads all over the land, but the real Gates had been closed forever, or they had been destroyed. 

Looking up, both archangels chuckled in amusement. They stood in front of an old bookstore, but this was just any bookstore you can find everywhere. No, this one was heavily warded with protection spells of every kind. 

They shared a knowing look before Lucifer pushed the door to the store open and walked in with Gabriel right behind him. Inside, four women were gathered around each other and whispering in hushed voices, but Lucifer could hear the fear in each word. 

The door fell shut behind them and the seals and protects in the store flared up. Next to him, Gabriel growled, snapped once, and the spell around them broke apart while started to burn before they turned to ash. The hex bags were holding the protective wards. 

Panic replaced the fear, and the witches pulled back from the archangels like a flock of birds. “We mean no harm, but we need to use the Gate to Hell. We know that the Protectors entitled you with the protection of the last open Gate.” Gabriel’s voice rolled through the room like thunder and Lucifer smirked when he saw the witches flinch at the power in his brother’s voice. 

“I was expecting you, archangels. If you would follow me please.” A young woman with old eyes had walked into the store and opened a hidden door behind a bookshelf. “And you are?” The witch with the old eyes looked at them, and Lucifer could feel the power resting within her. Even when it was no match to his strength, this witch was a power in her own right. “Does it matter? The Horned-One gave me the duty to guard the last Gate, and while I know that he and his brother don’t need a Gate to descend to Hell, I know that they closed every other way to go downstairs. I know who you are, Lightbringer, just like I know that your brother is the Messenger and you are here because something happened, something, that forces you to go back to a place you’d rather avoid. I was told something like this could happen. The voice made of bells told me you would come when I was sleeping.” 

Surprised, Lucifer looked at the witch in front of him. “Gaia talked to you? Did you and your sisters lose consciousness too hours ago?” The witch pulled a face but nodded. “Something happened. Something that tipped the balance of this world. A change is in progress. A change, we don’t understand, and when I heard Her voice, I knew something big is about to happen. Something that had never happened before, and I’ve been walking this world for a long time. But enough talk for now. You need to hurry, follow me.”

The witch vanished behind the hidden door, and the archangels followed her. The staircase behind the door was long and went more in-depth than it should be, but when they finally reached the end, they stood in an old basement room with a heavy in-ground flagstone. 

Lucifer could feel the power of Hell behind the flagstone, but he saw why this gate was as good as useless to everyone else but him. He recognized Sam’s handwork in the runes of the flagstone and Sam had used Lucifer’s name, his very seal, to ward the Gate. 

After a side glance from Lucifer, the witch bowed and left the basement again to leave the two archangels alone. Lucifer hunkered down in front of the flagstone and placed his hands on the surface. It felt warm, but he could also feel how the heat was pulling away from him when it touched the cold of his grace. He sent his grace out, and the second the whole flagstone was covered in frost, the Gate started to groan as the flagstone gave way to the passage leading to Hell.

Lucifer expected to hear screams of the damned, laughter of the demons, the smell of sulfur but… the smell of sulfur was there but it wasn’t as strong as he expected it to be because something else was mixed with it and there were no screams and no laughter drifting up to them. Only silence, more silence. 

Lucifer didn’t wait for Gabriel as he jumped down into the open Gate. Darkness surrounded him, and while he could remember the last two times he fell through this darkness, it felt different than before. No eyes were watching him; no claws tried to grasp for his wings he had spread wide to slow down his fall, only to get burned when their nails touched the cold feathers. 

With an audible ‘thud,’ Lucifer landed followed seconds later by Gabriel. They had landed in a room that looked very much like a waiting area. Curious, the two archangels started to walk, but they didn’t meet anyone — no souls of the damned or demons. 

When they walked around a corner, both stopped dead in their tracks. There, on the ground, dozens of souls lay unconsciousness. It looked like they had dropped suddenly for some reason and hadn’t moved since then. “You know, this looks so much like a zombie movie, I bet the second we make too much noise they get up and try to eat us,” Gabriel whispered and gave Lucifer a big grin when the older archangel frowned at his brother, but Lucifer had to admit, yeah, this looked very much like a zombie movie.

They crossed the hallway with the souls but none of them woke up to eat them and the farther down they came into Hell, the more demons they found. Even the demons seemed to be sleeping just like the souls bound to the racks. 

Looking at each other, Lucifer and Gabriel passed the racks without looking back. It wasn’t their duty to interfere with the way Hell worked, and every soul who ended up on the racks did so for a reason. They had sealed their fate at some point in their life. 

They were passing by the hellhound kennels when Lucifer noticed it for the first time. A soft smell that didn’t belong to Hell. Lucifer stopped and took a deep breath. The scent was faint, but he could taste something in the air that reminded him of flowers. When Lucifer stopped, Gabriel walked right into him, but when he saw his brother checking their surroundings, Gabriel did the same. “Why would the demons try to grow a garden down here? I have my doubts that anything but Sam’s oak tree would be able to survive.” 

Lucifer forwent following his thought to knock some sense into Gabriel. “Remember Michael’s words. He said something about flowers down in Hell and pointed on your mark. If we are going to find flowers, I don’t think it’s going to be the work of demons but of the Protectors but let’s hurry. I know a different way to the Cage from this point.” 

They used a few shortcuts threw Hell Lucifer had heard the demons talk about during his time in the Cage and suddenly they stood in front of a colossal dike filled with magma. The molten stone glowed red and yellow, but Lucifer didn’t care for the impressive view under him when he spread his wings to follow the dike deeper into Hell. He heard Gabriel behind him growl and curse as he tried to keep his wings from hitting the stone walls around them. For his size, Gabriel had the most prominent wings of all of them, and while Lucifer envied Gabriel sometimes for his impressive wings, he didn’t at the moment when he navigated through the dike. 

They had been following the dike for some time when suddenly a considerable root broke through the stone and crossed over the embankment. Hovering over the glowing magma, Lucifer pointed to a massive hole in the wall next to the root. He had some difficulties, but Lucifer managed to land without smashing his wings into the walls around him. Gabriel hadn’t had so much luck, and his loud curses echoed in the empty tunnel.

Together, the two archangels looked down into the endless darkness of the tunnel in front of them. Gabriel had to put his wings away or he wouldn’t be able to move, though Lucifer could pull his wings tight against his back and use their light to illuminate the tunnel. 

When they reached the end of the tunnel and stepped out of it, they stood in a gigantic cave. The cave was so huge that even the light of Lucifer’s wings didn’t illuminate the whole room, but it was enough to show them the trunk of a giant tree. 

Looking up, they couldn’t see the crown of the tree, but it wasn’t necessary. They knew they had reached their destination. Acorns were scattered off the ground which was covered in moss, but the flowers told the two archangels that they had reached the cage. 

An ocean of yellow, red, white, pink, purple and mixes of other colors greeted them. Ivy grew around the flowers and climbed around the strong roots of the oak. The marks Sam had placed on the archangels were now growing in the Heart of Hell. 

Carefully as not to crush the delicate blossoms, Lucifer and Gabriel crossed the field of flowers. There, hidden between the roots of the oak, Lucifer could see the Cage. Halting his steps, Lucifer hesitated as he saw the place of his long imprisonment once again. Sometimes, he still dreamed of this place and from his memories earlier that day, Lucifer was still shaken and angry. He couldn’t understand why Sam and Dean would go into the Cage willingly. 

A small but warm and robust hand closed around his fingers, and Lucifer noticed Gabriel by his side. “It’s okay, brother. We’ll check if Micky told us the truth or if he went completely nuts in his time out. We won’t stay here for longer than we have to.” Nodding, Lucifer didn’t give Gabriel more of an answer but by looking around them Lucifer knew that Michael had spoken the truth. There was no other explanation why else the same flowers Sam had placed upon his archangels would suddenly grow in the Heart of Hell, and the oldest of the archangels were suddenly free again. 

Lucifer allowed Gabriel to step ahead of him, but Gabriel never let go of Lucifer’s hand. Together, they stepped up to the Cage and Lucifer wrapped his empty hand around the black bar once they reached the Cage. The metal was cold under his touch, but the air from within the Cage felt warm to Lucifer. 

Inside the Cage, Lucifer could see what he had hoped to belong to Michael’s madness but was proven wrong. The Cage looked small from Lucifer’s point, but he knew how wrong he was, the Cage was endless within, but Lucifer could see the Protectors. 

 

Sam had Dean looked like they were sleeping peacefully. Wrapped around each other, Lucifer noticed that Sam wore his white fur again and his antlers were huge and looked like obsidian. Dean’s features were partly hidden behind Sam’s antlers, but Lucifer was sure that Dean would be more than a wolf than human. Even from a distance, he could see Dean’s long claws. 

What Lucifer could see too, were the glowing symbols of the Mark of Life on their chests. The mark was pulsating like a heartbeat on their slowly falling, and rising breasts and the Protectors didn’t seem to notice the close by archangels. 

Looking around, Lucifer saw that the oak still closed the breach Sam had made years ago to free Lucifer, but now the tree had grown to such an impressive size, that the Cage was completely hidden between the roots. A different breach had been made, and Lucifer hadn’t needed to guess to know that Sam and Dean had made it, but the oak closed even this newly constructed breach. Roots had grown around it and now held the branch close so nobody could squeeze himself between the bars to slip in or out of the Cage. 

On the ground, almost hidden by the long leaves of the fire lilies, Lucifer spotted a broken branch. Gabriel spotted it too and picked it up. “This seems to back up Castiel’s idea about Michael’s vessel. They indeed made a vessel for our insane big brother.” Turning the branch around, Lucifer spotted the claw marks, runes and the blood on the branch. “Indeed, it appears so, but we still don’t know why they did what they did. Why did they choose to use the Cage for their nap and not the bunker?” 

Before Gabriel could answer Lucifer’s question, something slammed into their grace and tried to pull them back with strength only to vanish a second later, and a feeling of anger and distress stayed behind.

The strength with which their graces have been pulled on stunned both archangels but they both knew who that had been. Only Castiel would go for such a direct link to them and only when he was in dire need for their support. Disturbing, considered that they left him behind in their heavily warded bunker which was surrounded by the still standing barrier. Maybe Michael was causing him more significant problems than they had expected.

Spreading their wings, neither Lucifer nor Gabriel thought about which way they should take back. They used so much strength to push themselves off the ground that the flowers bent heavily under the wind their wings caused, but no blossom broke under the force.

They followed the trunk of the oak, and although they had been flying for minutes now, they still hadn’t reached the oak’s crown. When they finally arrived, they flew past the enormous branches, but it felt like the tree was moving out of the angel's way as not to disturb their urgent ascent back to the surface. Once they broke through the oak’s crown and the last leaves touched their feathers, they broke free of Hell’s domain, and they had the open sky over them and the Earth under them. 

They could still feel Castiel’s distress growing, and so they flew as fast as they could back to the bunker. Together, they hit the barrier around the forest and were suddenly cut off from any noise they had heard outside. Silence still reigned the forest.

In his haste to reach Castiel, Lucifer ripped the door to the bunker off of his hinges, and together Lucifer and Gabriel entered the bunker only to stop dead in their tracks when they stood on the balcony overlooking the main room. 

They couldn’t see Michael, but they saw Castiel who was covering a terrified-looking Ramiel with his body while he stared at someone standing in the middle of the room. The newcomer turned around and looked up at the second Lucifer and Gabriel entered the bunker.

“Hello, my children.”


	7. I hope that hurt

Lucifer was stunned and speechless. Never would he have guessed to meet _Him_ again. It seemed like this day was full of unpleasant surprises. Too many unpleasant surprises to be a coincidence. Feeling a shift of energy next to him, Lucifer looked at Gabriel whose eyes were fixated on _Him_.   
  
“Look what the cat dragged back home. A dead mouse.” Lucifer knew that sneer and drawling voice. Gabriel was pulling himself into his Loki persona. “We weren’t expecting such a royal visit, or we would have spent more time messing everything up. No need to make you feel welcome when you’re not.” Chuckling, Lucifer found the irritated expression on their father’s face amusing.   
  
“Lucifer, Gabriel, I’m so happy to see you.” Scoffing, Lucifer made his way down the stairs with Loki right behind him. “That’s hard to believe when you have been absent for… how long?” Loki sneered behind Lucifer’s back. He felt better leaving the talking, or mocking, to Loki while he watched their father. As Lucifer watched their father, He looked at Gabriel like He couldn’t make sense of what He was seeing.   
  
“You are not Gabriel.” Snorting, Loki moved between Lucifer and their father while he gestured to Castiel with a motion of his hand. Lucifer allowed himself a quick touch to his brother’s neck before he crossed the room to stand next to Castiel.   
  
“No, I’m not or, not really. Depends on a few things, old man.” Loki had pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and was rocking back and forth on his feet.   
  
Moving closer to Castiel, the seraph lowered his aggressive stance, but Ramiel wasn’t letting go of Castiel. Naked panic was all over her face. Closing his hand around Castiel’s wrist while Loki still occupied their father, Lucifer sent his thoughts out to Castiel.   
  
_“What happened while we were gone?”_ Castiel blinked slowly, and his eyes wandered from Lucifer to Ramie. _“Ramiel suddenly appeared. She said the Spark of the Garden is in danger because someone wants to take it from her.”_ Even without hearing what Castiel said next, Lucifer knew what was coming. _“She had no idea where to go, and so she came to me looking for safety when suddenly Father appeared, looking for her. You know what will happen when somebody tries to take the Spark by force from her. Only Sam can separate her grace from the Spark.”_ Until now, Lucifer had listened to Castiel words in his mind and Loki’s spoken words, but when Castiel confirmed his suspicions, Lucifer was already done with their father.   
  
“And once again you try to play with something and have no idea what you are playing with, Father.” Loki fell silent immediately, and with a snap, he teleported himself from his position next to the stairs over to his brothers.   
  
At least their father had the manners to look partially embarrassed and partially offended. “What are you talking about, Lucifer?” Eyes more green than golden looked at Lucifer. “Our dearest Father came to take what is not his anymore.” Lucifer heard Ramie take a hissing breath when she realized in whose presence, she was… and who wanted to take the Spark of the Garden from her. She made himself even smaller behind Castiel who was now flanked by two archangels.   
  
In front of them, God sighed heavily and looked tiredly at His children.   
  
“You make it sound worse. I want to bring my children back home, you four included, but I need the Spark of the Garden to bring it back to life.”   
  
Behind them, Ramiel whimpered, and nothing but fear marked her face. Lucifer could see that she was about to bolt, and he grabbed her around the arm to pull her against his side and wrap her into his wing. Castiel and Loki changed their positions to take Lucifer with a frightened Ramiel in their middle.   
  
“Still as single-minded as always.” He didn’t know what amused him more, the sneer from Loki or the fact that Castiel went for Lucifer’s blade he still had hidden within his coat. In front of them, their father looked at them like He couldn’t understand what was happening.   
  
“I can understand that you are not happy with me being here, my children. I was only able to find you and come here because the Protectors have chosen to sleep. While the Protectors sleep, Heaven is needed at full power but to restore Heaven; I need to rebuild the Garden. If you hand the Spark over to me, I promise I will leave you be, but you still will be welcome at home. It might take a while to find all the fallen angels on Earth, but I will bring all of my children back home again.”  
  
“You don’t get it, do you?” Castiel’s question was cold and sharp like the blade he still held in his hand. “We have a home, we have a family to stay with, and Heaven wasn’t a _home_ anymore since the day you gave Michael the task to force Lucifer out. You denied your first creation when you willingly gave Freewill to humankind, and when one of your firstborns showed the same trait, you kicked him out. You didn’t even have the guts to do it yourself, no; you needed one of your so beloved children to your dirty work for you. If you want to take the Spark, you have to go through me.”   
  
Even Loki shifted into a battle-ready stance at Castiel’s words. Next to Lucifer, still wrapped in his wing, the little Angel of Hope clawed at Lucifer’s feathers and repeated the same sentence again and again. “Don’t let him take me. Don’t let him take me. Don’t let him take me…” There was nothing he could do to ease her fear, but Lucifer would rather rip off his wings than let their father take the little angel.  
  
Their father raised His hands at Castiel’s hostile words. “You don’t understand, Castiel. I mean no harm to Ramiel but with the Protectors gone this world needs someone to take care of it and…”   
  
Whatever more their father wanted to say died in the sound of Loki’s cruel laughter. “You are telling him, telling us, that we don’t understand, old man? Laughable. This world doesn’t need Heaven, doesn’t need the angels as the Host and, furthermore, doesn’t need _you_. When was the last time you did something for this world besides planning its end? The end of our mates? You are the one not understanding anything, _Father_.” Lucifer had been wrong. This wasn’t Loki talking but Gabriel.   
  
Their father’s face darkened after He heard Gabriel’s words and Lucifer was prepared to face the pure form of their father. The one of a vengeful and ruthless God calling for blood. Their father leveled a heavy glare at Ramiel, one the little angel couldn’t hide from, not even behind the Lightbringer’s wings. “Come, child. It is time to restore the Garden, to restore Heaven and bring your siblings, my children, back home.”   
  
Still wrapped in his wing, Lucifer could feel Ramiel shiver and fight against the power behind their father’s words but in the end, he was God, after all, their father and their creator and they had to follow him. Ramiel started to fight against Lucifer’s hold, and Lucifer could see that the others were forced to stand down by the sheer power radiating from their father. Everyone but _him_.   
  
Smiling at his father, he pushed Castiel aside, took his blade back from Castiel’s immobile fingers and threw it at his father’s feet. “Here, take this old man, because you are going to need it to get the Spark.”   
  
God looked up from Ramiel, and while Lucifer could feel and acknowledge the power resting in his father’s vessel, he hadn’t had to bow down in front of it. After all these years, it seemed that Lucifer was still the rebellious archangel he was when humanity was still wearing its diapers. “What is the meaning of this, Lucifer?”   
  
Still grinning, Lucifer released Ramiel from his wings only to let her take on a step and to push her back against his chest. He tipped against her sternum and pointed at the blade laying at their father’s feet. “You want the Spark? You may pick up my blade then, dearest Father of mine. The Guardian himself gave the Spark to Ramiel. It was the Guardian who turned the sickness into something that wouldn’t kill the Host and gave the Spark to Ramiel to protect. Sam saved your children and entitled the Angel of Hope with the safety of the Spark because it was her who made Sam change his mind. If you want the Spark, you can take it, but you have to kill the little Angel of Hope.”   
  
Next, to him, Gabriel ground his teeth together, and while being unable to do anything, he would still try to defend the little angel.   
  
God, meanwhile, looked at Lucifer with an expression the archangel couldn’t read. Their time together was too long gone.   
  
“Come on,” Lucifer taunted their father and tipped against Ramiel’s sternum again, but he could feel where she was pressing herself against him, and he could see the way Castiel and Gabriel were changing their positions. They were again free of their father’s power. “Take what you want, you are God after all. Show us that you are still the selfish, wrathful being you always were and always be and kill the little angel to go on with your plan. But be prepared to meet the wrath of someone equally powerful if not even stronger. The Protectors are sleeping, yes, and their absence allowed you to enter and violate our home, but what do you think will happen when you lay hands on someone the Protectors, the Winchesters, consider family? I find it hard to believe that they will allow you to walk away after taking someone they consider their little sister. They will hunt you down, and when it happens, I will be right by their side watching. I’ll watch those you condemned to death before they were even born rip you apart. There won’t be enough holes to hide yourself from the Winchesters. They will find you, rip you apart and turn this world finally into something good. They are already on their best way to do so, and now you show up to mess it up again. What are you going to do now, Father?”  
  
Everyone was frozen on their spot while God’s face was white as a sheet. Ramiel pressed her small body against Lucifer’s, and a part of him noticed how weird it felt. She was so small and soft when he was used to stronger and bigger bodies pressed against his own.   
  
The sinister aura around their father vanished, and now He only looked old and tired. He exhaled loudly and shook His head. “No, I won’t kill one of my children, but I still need the Spark. When I find a way to separate Ramiel’s grace from the Spark without endangering her, will you let me have it?”   
  
Shrugging his shoulders, Lucifer saw no reason to give his father a real answer. “I don’t know. The Spark is hers, and it’s up to her to decide. I won’t overstep any boundaries with agreeing to hand over the Spark with its Ramiel’s choice. Consent is still essential to me.”   
  
Grinning at their father, Lucifer allowed Ramiel to free herself, but she only went to Castiel to tug on his coat again. She said nothing but Castiel looked at her with a knowing smile and nodded in the direction of the hallway. Ramiel took a step back while Castiel walked over to their father to pick up the blade Lucifer had thrown at their father’s feet.   
  
Taking the blade up Castiel looked at the knife before he looked at their father. It was almost like watching Dean do something stupid, and Lucifer was about to call Castiel back when the Seraph did something incredibly foolish and yet completely hilarious.   
  
Castiel smashed his fist right into God’s face, and God went down like a stone. He looked up at Castiel with a startled expression and was apparently at a loss of words. Growling and shaking his hand, Castiel turned around, shoved the blade back in Lucifer’s hand, nodded at Ramiel and together with the seraph, and the little angel left.   
  
Lucifer was sure that he could hear Castiel curse somewhere in the bunker because his hand had to hurt after literally punching God in the face and so Lucifer gave in to a suddenly appearing urge.  
  
He started to laugh. The Lightbringer laughed so hard that he couldn’t keep himself up on his feet and went down on the ground without stopping his laughter. Lucifer hoped that the hit had hurt their father as much as Castiel hurt himself, but the whole situation was hilarious.


	8. Herself

After the incident in the main hall, they all separated but to their great disapproval, their father decided to stay with them. Annoyed but unable to do anything against the one who had created the Earth and themselves, Lucifer watched with great amusement how it pissed their father off that His children ignored him.   
  
They went on with their daily business like usual, just with their beloved Protectors missing, but they had taken over specific tasks, and they would not fail Sam and Dean by neglecting their duties.   
  
They cared for their fallen siblings, made sure that the parts of the world the Protectors had healed a short while ago stayed fertile and very much alive. With Hell in deep slumber, they didn’t have to keep their eyes out for any demon activity but other things bumping in the night still could cause some trouble. Well, trouble for maybe a night before one of them went out to take the idiots out for not respecting the Realm of the Protectors.   
  
Most of the time Castiel left the bunker to take care of issues, and Ramiel accompanied him. She was still terrified of their father and whenever He managed to catch her alone in the bunker, a rarity because the little angel usually stuck to Castiel most of the time, Ramiel found a way out most of the time or fled into the library where she would discover Lucifer and Gabriel.  
  
Once, when the terrified little angel ran into the library and hid behind Lucifer, their father walked in with a pained expression and Lucifer had only looked up from the book in front of him, looked at their father with a pulled up eyebrow and said nothing. Their father turned around and left without saying a word.   
  
The reason Lucifer and Gabriel spent most of their time in the library was because of an activity Sam would find hilarious; they were researching. They had no idea why the Protectors had chosen to sleep, how long they would be gone or if something had forced them to retreat into this sleep. To their utter frustration, they found nothing. The information that had been written over the millennia were either completely wrong, proven false by Sam and Dean, or they didn’t apply to the Winchester brothers.   
  
At some point, Lucifer called for Joshua to join them and together with Castiel; they had questioned the former Guardian of the Garden. Joshua was able to tell them more about the former Protectors, those who had been called by Gaia before the Winchesters. While it helped them to understand the ways the previous Protectors had worked together, it showed them how much they depended on each other. One Protector could never function without its partner and destruction would follow the remaining Protector should the other be lost. They were a unit, bound together through Earth and Gaia and without their other half, the remaining Protector would go insane and wither and on his path of destruction he could take the world with him.   
  
Joshua told them too, that before anything like this could happen Gaia had always stepped in and had taken care of the remaining Protector. How, the angel didn’t know, but it showed them all that Sam and Dean seemed to be made to be the Protectors of the Realm. All of them had witnessed the wrath of a Winchester when his brother was in danger or lost. No one wanted to observe a Winchester mourning their brother again or even try to imagine what would happen should something be able to take one of them out. This world would die only moments later; Lucifer was certain.   
  
Still, Lucifer’s favorite moment of their father’s visit happened almost a week after His sudden appearance.   
  
Lucifer was still trying his luck in finding anything useful in the books when he spotted Castiel walking through the hallway, but he stopped in his tracks before he turned around with a snarl on his lips. The funny thing was, the seraph wore nothing but a towel tied around his hips while Ramiel always remained behind his back, wearing Castiel’s trench coat. A second later, their father joined an angry looking Castiel, and that was the moment when Lucifer nudged against Gabriel’s leg under the table and nodded in the direction of the hallway. Curious, Gabriel leaned back in his chair and together the two archangels watched the exchange between their brother and their father. A fearful Michael was hiding in the corner of the room while he watched the two.  
  
Castiel’s vessel was much bigger and stronger, and without his trademark suit and trench coat, everyone could see how much muscle the seraph had been hiding under his layers of clothing. That a few rebellious droplets of water were still clinging to his skin and his hair looked darker than usual when it was wet only bonus points to the look Castiel presented.   
  
He stared down at their father with something close to rage. Without lowering his glare, Castiel snapped and threw a CD at their father who caught it out of reflex. He looked down at the CD and Lucifer was sure he saw their father blushing. “I recommend watching this. Maybe you will then understand the term of screw yourself and leave us be. Stop wasting time trying to persuade Ramiel into sacrificing her life for something you never really cared about, and take care of the one son who needs you.”   
  
Castiel pointed at Michael who tried to become one with the wall with several sets of eyes turned suddenly in his direction. Since he had told his brothers where they could find the Protectors, Michael had refused to speak. Thanks to the tiny spark of grace within his vessel, they didn’t need to take him out, but most of the time Michael was hiding somewhere like a frightened animal. When it was clear that he was no danger to himself or others, they ignored him.   
  
At Castiel’s accusing words, their father looked at Michael and said nothing. He just looked at His oldest son who couldn’t stand to have so many eyes upon himself and used one of the big bookshelves to hide completely. Their father shook His head, turned around and was about to leave; the CD Castiel had thrown at Him still in His hands. Castiel growled at their father’s back, and Lucifer saw Castiel raise his wings, his feathers made a scratching sound when he shook his wings. “And you want to restore Heaven and bring your children home when you can’t even take care of the one who needs you the most. You failed your children when you used Michael to force Lucifer out, and now you are failing your children again. Do all of us a favor and stop pretending when all of us can clearly see that you don’t care for us at all.”   
  
Because Lucifer was still in the library, he couldn’t see their father’s reaction to Castiel’s hurtful words, but he almost expected to watch Castiel being annihilated, but Castiel only raised his head in defiance, turned around and left. Ramiel followed him like a shadow.   
  
Lucifer was about to go back to his work, a smile formed placed on his face at the way Castiel had talked to their father when he noticed Gabriel. The younger archangel was still looking at the hallway with a thoughtful expression on his face that didn’t fit his usual playful nature. Suddenly, Gabriel seemed to feel Lucifer’s eye on him. He returned Lucifer’s gaze only to vanished from his spot with a rustle of wings.   
  
Sighing heavily, Lucifer closed his eyes. Their father’s presence made a challenging situation even harder for all of them. Snarling, Lucifer hurled the book in front of him against the opposite wall only to be angry with himself the second the book lay broken on the ground. Sam always the treated the books with great care and Lucifer could almost feel Sam’s scowl on him the way he just had thrown one of Sam’s precious books against the wall. With a snap, Lucifer repaired the book and placed it back on the table only to let his hand rest on the closed cover.   
  
It seemed that they could do nothing more but wait for Sam and Dean to wake up again. Lucifer had taken another trip down to Hell to check on them only to find them unchanged and still profoundly asleep. Maybe he needed a break.   
  
Stretching his wings, Lucifer vanished from the library and only a hidden but shaking Michael remained in the room.   
  
…  
  
Lucifer had spent the majority of his day in Antarctica. He wandered around aimlessly in the white and cold desert, so deeply sunken in his mind that he didn’t notice the group of people approaching him. They belonged to a local research institute and were on their way back when they spotted him. The men were in high commotion when they found him wandering around in nothing but sneakers, jeans, and t-shirt and tried to persuade him to come back to the institute with them because he was in mortal danger with the weather conditions.   
  


Scoffing, Lucifer had ignored them and kept walking, but they tried to follow him until he just flew off and reappeared in the bunker. _“Too many humans on this damn planet.”_ Lucifer thought as he opened the door to the room he usually shared with Sam and Gabriel only to find his brother sitting in their giant nest like a bed with his wings exposed. The same weird expression was still present on his brother’s face as he kept tugging on his feathers.   
  
Looking around, Lucifer noticed the number of feathers laying around. He knew for sure that Gabriel’s wings weren’t in such a bad condition that the would need to pull out so many feathers to keep his wings clean and durable. Gabriel gave no indication that he had noticed Lucifer’s presence and when Lucifer saw his brother pulling out a feather that clearly could have stayed where it was, the archangel crossed the room, lowered himself on their bed and stopped Gabriel by pushing him back into the soft cushions behind his back and using his wings to press Gabriel’s deep into the soft bedding.   
  
Gabriel blinked and looked up at Lucifer. Shame colored Gabriel’s face when he realized what he had done, and Lucifer understood that he didn’t do it on purpose and Lucifer understood something else too. Gabriel was very good at hiding his true feelings and thoughts behind his Loki mask. Gabriel had been pushing himself too hard over the last days. While Lucifer had fallen back into his role as the defiant son, Gabriel had fallen back into his own as the inaccessible archangel part trickster who couldn’t be touched by anything, and Lucifer was sure that Gabriel had been fighting himself in saying in the bunker with their father and Michael present but he stayed because he was needed.  
  
Lucifer closed his eyes and lowered his head until he could rest his forehead against Gabriel’s. Carefully, Lucifer allowed his grace to entwine itself with Gabriel’s to the point it was difficult to tell where Lucifer started and where Gabriel ended. The cold of Lucifer’s grace helped Gabriel calm down, to ground himself in the here and now again and Lucifer could feel how it banished the urge in Gabriel to run and don’t look back. Lowering the pressure of his wings against Gabriel’s, Lucifer allowed Gabriel to use his wings to cover Lucifer’s while Lucifer started to place small kisses on Gabriel’s jaw before he pressed his lips to Gabriel’s.   
  
Lucifer didn’t want to force Gabriel into something he wasn’t ready to give, but his brother opened himself to Lucifer at the first chaste lick of Lucifer’s tongue against his lips. Closing his eyes, Lucifer enjoyed the warmth of Gabriel’s mouth. While Lucifer loved kissing Sam, kissing Gabriel was always different. Warmer, sweeter and with a light feeling of lighting in-between.   
  
Gabriel kissed him back with fierce passion without being too demanding at once. His wings flapped against Lucifer once more before they fell back against the bedding and Gabriel spread them out in a gesture that was nothing but submissive.   
  
Pulling back, Lucifer looked first at his brother’s wings before he looked at his brother’s face. A soft blush covered Gabriel’s cheeks while he looked up at Lucifer from between his lashes. Smiling, Lucifer sat back and pulled his shirt over his head; his wings vanished for the second he needed to get the shirt over his head only to reappear when he threw his shirt away.   
  
Using his wings to keep Gabriel’s grounded, Lucifer held his sitting position to open Gabriel’s shirt button by button only to push it aside when he was done. Summoning his grace, Lucifer made sure that his touch would feel cold against Gabriel’s skin when he closed his hands around Gabriel’s nipples. The younger archangel started to whimper against the cold touch but pressed himself deeper into Lucifer’s hands as the older archangel changed his position to trap Gabriel’s legs with his own.    
  
While Lucifer twisted one of Gabriel’s nipples with his fingers, he used his other hand to map the outlines of Gabriel’s hard cock through his jeans. His brother hissed at the touch, and Lucifer bent forward to lick over Gabriel’s nipples while he opened Gabriel’s fly and pulled down his zipper.   
  
“Can’t you go… faster, brother?” Gabriel pressed the words out from between his teeth, but Lucifer stopped lowering Gabriel’s zipper any further and bit down hard on his nipple. Only when he heard Gabriel’s pained yelp did Lucifer pull back to stare at his brother into his beautiful whiskey-colored eyes. “You get what I want to give. You will lean back, enjoy, and take what I give you. Try to push me one more time, and I will think of something to punish you. You know how creative I can be with my punishments.”   
  


Lucifer could see that Gabriel was considering his next step and while Lucifer had no problem punishing his brother for being a demanding brat, he didn’t want to do it at the moment. He wanted to see Gabriel fall apart.  
  
When Gabriel had made his decision, he pulled his head back, and Lucifer was delighted when his brother offered him his vulnerable throat. Licking over his pulse point, Lucifer went back to open his brother’s jeans only to push his underwear aside so he could pull Gabriel’s hard cock out.   
  
Gabriel made a broken sound when Lucifer closed his long and cold fingers around his cock, but Lucifer merely smirked at his brother, pinned his golden wings to the bed and bent forward. Lucifer closed his lips around the head of Gabriel’s cock and used his forked tongue to follow every contour, every vein without sucking Gabriel down all the way. Gabriel’s breathing became faster, and Lucifer saw how he buried his hands in the sheets around him and with a firm grip to Gabriel’s hips, Lucifer pushed the thin tip of his forked tongue into the slit of Gabriel’s cock while he used his grace to pin Gabriel down.   
  
Without the grace holding him down, Gabriel would have bowed off the bed, but like this, Gabriel could only moan and push against the invisible bonds while Lucifer watched him as he drove the thin tip of his forked tongue again and again into his brother’s slit. Pushing Gabriel’s legs apart, Lucifer rolled his brother’s balls in his hand only to wander lower moments to later press against his rim.   
  
Lucifer didn’t need to use much pressure before he could push two of his long fingers into his brother who had started to curse Lucifer for his acrobatics. Pulling off Gabriel’s hard flesh with a soundful pop, Lucifer grinned up at his brother. “Don’t lie to yourself, Gabriel. You love my acrobatics.” Gabriel was about to answer with his usual snark when he seemed to remember Lucifer’s earlier warning. Biting down on his lip, Gabriel nodded at his brother.   
  
“Much better, Gabriel.” With a snap, Lucifer freed them both from their jeans only to fold Gabriel almost a half when he placed his brother’s legs on his shoulders. “And because you are doing to so good, Gabriel, I will give you more of the acrobatics you love so much.”   
  
Lifting Gabriel some more, Lucifer pulled his brother’s cheeks apart, and without waiting for his response, he licked over Gabriel’s hole without further warning. Gabriel’s body tensed as a broken moan spilled from his lips at the first touch of Lucifer’s tongue. Just like the Devil he was, Lucifer relished in every sound Gabriel made.   
  
Ignoring Gabriel’s begging for more, Lucifer licked slowly over Gabriel’s hole before he pushed his tongue completely into his brother. The second Lucifer buried his tongue for the first time in Gabriel’s entrance; the smaller archangel reached up to bury his hand in Lucifer’s hair. When Gabriel started to pull on the dark blond strands of Lucifer’s hair, the older archangel began to moan himself before he added a finger next to his tongue.   
  
Gabriel answered every lick of Lucifer's tongue with a breathy moan and a hard tug on Lucifer’s hair. It wasn’t a demand for more, but a way to show Lucifer that Gabriel loved what he was doing. The younger archangel whined when Lucifer pulled back and lowered his legs to the bed.   
  
The blush on Gabriel’s face gave him such an attractive appearance that Lucifer haltered in his movements to look at his brother for a moment. He allowed himself this time until Gabriel started to squirm under Lucifer’s eyes and the older archangel pulled Gabriel into his lap and wrapped his legs around his hips.   
  
When Lucifer finally pushed into his brother’s spit-wet and stretched hole, Lucifer couldn’t stop himself from lifting his wings in a sharp display of dominance while Gabriel answered in instinct and let his free wings rest on the bed for Lucifer to touch them as he wished.   
  
When Lucifer bottomed out, he held himself still, and his wings held wide while he looked at the place where he was splitting Gabriel open. Growling, Lucifer buried one hand in Gabriel’s feathers while he used his other hand to keep Gabriel in position before he started to thrust.   
  
Gabriel gasped and wrapped his hands around Lucifer’s much stronger arms as he kept himself soft and pliant. An old part in Lucifer’s mind, the part that was in no way civilized, enjoyed the way Gabriel was submitting to him.   
  
With short and hard thrusts, Lucifer pushed his brother’s pliant body while he watched how his flesh split Gabriel open again and again. Gabriel left red marks on Lucifer’s skin as he held onto his brother. Grinning at the way Gabriel allowed him to take him, Lucifer pulled almost all the way out before he pushed back in slowly.   
  
While he was buried inside his brother’s tight heat, Lucifer moved them a bit until he had Gabriel almost bent in half before he went back to his short and hard thrusts.   
  


Lucifer let go of Gabriel’s hip and closed his hand around Gabriel’s cock once more and started to jerk him in motion to his thrusts. Gabriel made a sound that could be anything from a word to moan, but his brother’s body began to shake as Lucifer pushed him closer and closer to his orgasm.   
  
With his eyes wide open, Gabriel had no other choice but surrender to Lucifer when his brother pushed him over the cliff and into a powerful orgasm. Gabriel’s wings tensed once before they lost all their strength and fell back on the bed as Gabriel painted his chest white with his orgasm. Lucifer didn’t stop his thrusts when Gabriel reached his orgasm just like he didn’t stop jerking his brother off. Gabriel moaned at the prolonged pleasure, and a few white droplets of his release landed on Gabriel’s face and looked like hard contrast to the aroused blush he still wore.  
  


Only when Gabriel was about to pry Lucifer’s hand off his cock, did the older archangel let go and was surprised to feel his orgasm approaching. He only needed a handful of thrusts before Lucifer came hard enough that he accidentally spread his wings to their greatest width and leave deep cuts in the wall.   
  
Lucifer let go of Gabriel when he reached the end of his orgasm only look at a few droplets of white drip from his brother’s hole when he lowered Gabriel’s legs back to the bed.   
  
Pulling one of the smaller sheets around them, Lucifer used it to clean his brother’s chest and face only to throw the cloth away in the same direction as his shirt. When Gabriel was cleaned up, Lucifer pulled the covers over them, wings and all, and held Gabriel close while he ordered them both to rest.   
  
…  
  
Lucifer woke up because something was off, again, in the bunker. Pushing himself up, he looked at the door he hadn’t closed entirely in his haste to stop Gabriel from pulling his feathers out. The smell of freshly made pancakes filled the air, and there was something like music too.   
  
Pushing the covers aside, Lucifer got silently up from the bed as not to wake Gabriel who immediately pulled the covers smelling like Lucifer closer to his face. Lucifer pulled the covers back over Gabriel’s still sleeping form.   
  
Not wanting to lose any time with dressing himself, Lucifer snapped his clothes back on and left the room only to close the door silently behind himself. He followed the smell of pancakes and the soft melody filling the air and ended up in the kitchen.   
  
Someone he had never seen before stood in the kitchen and hummed a song Lucifer couldn’t name. Their newest guest was a woman of short build with long dark brown hair that reached past her shoulders and dressed in a green and blue plaid shirt, loose-fitting jeans and sturdy boots; she looked like she shopped in the same store the Winchesters.   
  
Frowning, Lucifer walked into the kitchen ready to demand some answer when the woman turned around to look at Lucifer. The woman smiled at him, and the sound of bells filled the air together with the smell of pancakes and flowers, and Lucifer was sure that he had never seen eyes as green as hers and while he had never met her, he knew exactly who was making pancakes in their kitchen.


	9. Builder and Keeper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys,
> 
> it's Monday and here is a new chapter for you. While only one chapter is left to finish this story, I won't be posting the last chapter next week. 
> 
> Next week I'm going to post my SPN Trope Celebration Bang story and I'm going to stick to my own rule: only one story per week. 
> 
> I'm going to post a oneshot this Thursday and next week as well but for the grand final you have to wait two weeks now. Sorry/Not sorry because there will be 5th part of this series! Yeah, you read right, part 5 will be there, is already written and just waiting its time. 
> 
> Stay tuned, followed me on tumblr and enjoy this chapter.
> 
> Silva

Lucifer stood frozen on his spot when Gaia approached him. He had heard Gabriel and Sam talk about her, Sam in a very different way than Gabriel, but he did not doubt that the woman in front of him was the one who gave Sam and Dean their powers as Protectors; _her_ protectors.   
  
When Gaia stood in front him, Lucifer noticed how small she looked in her human form. If he remembered correctly, Gaia had never talked to anybody while wearing a human skin. Stag, doe, wolf, bells sounding in your mind, but never a human vessel.   
  
With a warm smile playing over a face, Gaia stepped in front of Lucifer and placed her hand on his chest. This close, her eyes were of brilliant apple green and next to Lucifer’s vessel, Gaia was tiny.   
  
“The Bright One. I always wanted to meet you. Sam always speaks with such love about you, but despite your bond with my Guardian, you remained the same; the Bright one, the brightest of lights.” When Gaia spoke, it felt like a warm breeze stroking through his feathers and the feeling of sunshine on his skin. “I was so glad when I saw that Sam had freed you from your prison, Bright One. No creature should suffer in a cage as you endured for so long. Come, sit and eat. The Guardian and the Nourisher told me that eating helps to lighten your mood. I know that you feel the absence of your mate.”  
  
Lucifer watched almost in a trance as Gaia wrapped her small and delicate fingers around his only to pull him to the table. She made him sit down with a smile and Lucifer took the seat she offered him. Never in the long span of his existence had Lucifer felt like this. Not even in the presence of God himself. When Lucifer was still young and only one of the four archangels in God’s new universe, had he felt like he did now.   
  
The feeling of the warm breeze gliding over his feathers, the impression of sunlight warming his cold skin, the bells were still there, but they were distant now.   
  
Lucifer knew he was staring, but he didn’t care. When Gabriel had talked about Gaia, his brother had spoken in a hushed and soft voice. Now Lucifer was not only in her presence, but he was the center of her attention, and he was a loss to describe how he felt about it.   
  
Gaia smiled warmly at him before she tried to banish the chaos that was his hair after Gabriel had buried his hand in his dark blond strands earlier. “Sam showed me what you look like in your human vessel, but I have to admit, you look quite different to what he revealed. He disclosed me your face in his dreams, and let me tell you this; Bright One, to Sam Winchester, you are the most beautiful being he ever lay his eyes upon. He loves the Divided One just like he loves you, but there is a different history between them than between you two. His love for you is so fierce and strong that it was enough to make life grow and bloom at a place made for the damned. You can’t imagine how happy I was when I felt you accept his offering, but I was still surprised that you remained as you are, as the Bright One. I thought you would become a Divided One, just like the little Trickster.”   
  
Lucifer was unable to take his eyes off Gaia, and neither was he able to answer anything she just had said about him. He knew that Sam loved him and that Sam loved both him and Gabriel the same but in different ways, but to hear Gaia use such words to describe it…   
  
Suddenly, Lucifer felt completely open and exposed. He lowered his eyes without shaking off Gaia’s hand which she had placed on his head in a futile attempt to tame his hair. The bells returned as Gaia chuckled, and the sound caused a soft wave that made his feathers ripple. “It’s okay, Bright One, I understand. How about some pancakes?”   
  
Shivering at the music following every of Gaia’s words, Lucifer nodded. When he felt her move away, he dared to look up again. Gaia went back to the stack of pancakes she had already made and put some on a plate, sprinkled pomegranate seeds over it and smothered everything with something that could either be honey or maple syrup.   
  
She placed the plate in front of Lucifer and with the dish standing under his nose, Lucifer could smell that it was neither honey nor maple syrup. Gaia had drowned the pancakes in clear golden caramel syrup. “Caramel? My brother will love you.” The words left Lucifer’s mouth before he could stop them, but Gaia only laughed while she put a glass full of orange juice in front of him. “Everyone loves the one who puts breakfast in front of you. Eat, before it gets cold.”   
  
It didn’t feel like an order or a command, but Lucifer still felt the urge to follow her wish to make her happy by eating her breakfast.   
  
Lucifer had gone through half of the stack of pancakes on his plate when a sleepy Gabriel walked into the kitchen. A severe case of bed hair, low riding sweatpants, an open button-down shirt that belonged to Lucifer, Gabriel looked precisely as if he just rolled out of bed.   
  


“Lucifer? Did you make breakfast? I can smell pancakes.” Gabriel was rubbing his eyes, and so he didn’t notice Gaia as he walked into the kitchen, but he did see her when he lowered his hands.   
  
Understanding appeared on his brother’s face and just like Lucifer earlier, Gabriel seemed to be frozen in place. Gaia crossed the room and cupped his brother’s face with her hands. She was even shorter than Gabriel as the youngest archangel stared down at her.   
  
“Gaia…” Lucifer gave his brother way more credit for being able to say her name while he hadn’t been able to mutter one word. “Divided One. I’m so happy to see you again. I was sure the smell of food would wake you. Come, sit and eat. I didn’t want to leave your brother waiting, and so I asked him to start without you. I hope you don’t mind.”   
  
With wide eyes, Gabriel took the seat next to Lucifer, but his gaze never left Gaia as she moved through the room as if she did this on a daily basis. She put a small stack of pancakes on a new plate, added some blueberries before she smothered everything again with caramel syrup.   
  
“Here, Divided One, I hope you like it.”  
  
Gabriel sniffed the pancakes Gaia had placed in front of him, and his smile was strong enough to lighten up the room when he threw himself at his breakfast. Amused at the way Gabriel was devouring the pancakes, Lucifer shook his head and finished his meal with way more manners than his brother displayed.   
  
He was about to get up to put his dishes away when Gaia snatched the plate away from him and pointed at him with her elegant hand. “Just enjoy the moment, Bright One, I’ll take care of everything.” Frowning at the empty spot on the table in front of him, Lucifer looked up at Gaia. He still could feel the strange breeze and the sunlight, but the feeling of awe had vanished. “Why are you here, Gaia?” Something seemed to shift in Gaia’s eyes while she refilled his orange juice. “I know you want answers, and I promise you will get them, Bright One, but I’m asking you to wait until the others arrive. Explaining everything at once will make it easier.”  
  
She winked at him, and suddenly a muffin appeared on a clean plate in front of the archangel.   
  
Accepting her answer for now, Lucifer started to eat his muffin, dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts, when a grumpy looking Castiel with Ramiel walked into the kitchen. Castiel looked disheveled and weirdly naked in his sweatpants and one of Dean’s old AC/DC t-shirts while Ramiel still wore the seraph’s trench coat.   
  
The second Ramiel spotted Gaia, she took a step back and hid behind Castiel who only looked at Gaia with his blue eyes. A spark of grace flared in Castiel’s eyes, and his grumpy expression vanished to one of surprise before he turned around to look at Ramiel. “It’s okay, Ramiel, unexpected, but okay.” Ramiel looked around Castiel and met Gaia’s green eyes, but the little angel gasped and lowered her gaze immediately.   
  
Gaia stepped up to Castiel, and in front of the seraph’s sturdy vessel with his broad shoulders, Gaia looked tiny and almost breakable. “The Troublemaker. I’m honored to speak with you finally.” Unlike with Lucifer and Gabriel, Gaia made no move to touch Castiel, and the seraph tilted his head aside and looked down at her. “Troublemaker? I don’t think this title fits me very well, Mother Earth.”  
  
Gaia started to laugh in open joy and pulled Castiel into a brief hug. “It fits you; it’s who you are deep down in your core. Not one to do as he’s told. Just like the Bright One, you are not made to listen and follow.” Castiel looked a bit uncomfortable, but it seemed to be more of the hug than of what Gaia was saying. They all had accepted a long time ago that Castiel was very much like Lucifer and only allowed certain people to touch him.   
  
When Castiel didn’t return the hug, Gaia pulled back with a heavy sigh. “Not one for hugs, huh?” Castiel repeated his head tilt from earlier before he answered Gaia’s question. “Dean explained to me very often the concept of personal space. While it doesn’t seem to apply to this family, just like Dean, I value my personal space.” Snorting, Gaia pointed on the chair across from Lucifer.   
  
“Yeah, Troublemaker, I hear you. Sit and enjoy your breakfast while I take a look at the mess my Guardian started.”   
  
Now every angel stared at Gaia as she gave Ramiel an overview. She even walked around the almost terrified looking little angel before she came to a stop in front of her. “You know, I’m impressed with what he has done. I bet it hurt like a bitch when he gave you the Spark, didn’t it?” Ramiel only nodded and was visibly fighting the urge to step back. “He didn’t do it on purpose, and it only hurt for a moment. He asked me if I wanted to stay behind and I agreed.”   
  
Gaia was staring intensely at Ramiel, but when she lifted her hands to touch her, the little angel made a step back. Sighing, she turned around to look at the two archangels and the seraph who were watching her like hawks. “I won’t hurt her, I promise, I just need to understand what Sam did.”  Turning back around, she looked at Ramiel with her hands help up. “I only need to place my hands on you. Nothing more. I promise.”  
  
Ramiel was stiff as a board when he looked at each angel sitting around the table before she looked back Gaia. “Why do you need to understand what the Protector did? He gave me the last Spark of the Garden and asked me to guard it, and that’s what I will do until he wants it back.”   
  
Nodding, Gaia never moved from her spot in front of Ramiel. “I know, he told me as such, but I don’t understand how he did it. The power that was once used to create the Garden was strong enough to create a whole realm. Even a spark of it should be enough to annihilate you, but here you are. The spark was made from the powers of the Eternal One, something my Protectors shouldn’t be able to handle let alone control. They are made of this world, this realm, my blood. I fear for my world that you can’t hold onto the spark and everything will be destroyed. With the Protectors absent, there would be no one to protect it against such power.”   
  
 Ramiel didn’t seem to be convinced by Gaia’s words, but she stepped closer to Gaia and only flinched a bit when Gaia placed her hand on the little angel’s face.   
  
The gesture looked almost angelic to Lucifer but the second after Gaia had placed her hand on Ramiel’s skin, the sound of the wind, of swooshing water, of sonorous bells, filled the room together with the heavy smell of freshly mowed grass, the scent of pines and wet earth with a deep-reaching feeling of peace.   
  
Lucifer had trouble focusing on anything but this feeling. It was firm and unblemished, and it reminded Lucifer of old, old times when everything but nothing but young, even he. Long forgotten memories of when he danced with Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel between newly made stars and how much Gabriel had laughed and pointed at the worlds they found scattered between the them. It almost felt like this happened in a different life and in a way, it was.   
  
Gaia stepped back, and the bells rang the last time and their clear sound echoed in the room before it faded. “Thank you, little one. This was beautiful to see. I understand now, and you should know, that everything is safe.” Ramiel stared at Gaia with wide eyes before she shook himself like a wet animal and pulled Gaia into a tight hug. Even compared to Ramiel, Gaia looked small, and Lucifer had trouble thinking of her as the one being every living being bowed to… when his father walked into the kitchen.   
  
Lucifer couldn’t suppress a growl when he spotted his father, and Ramiel tensed up before she let go of Gaia like she burned herself. A rustle of wings later, Ramiel appeared on the other side of the room. Pots and pans made a racket when the wind caused by her wings made them swing around. Panic marked her face, and while Gabriel was fast to get up from his chair, Castiel was faster.   
  
He pulled the frightened little angel against his side and whispered something that made no sense to Lucifer, but it seemed that Ramiel understood because she stopped shivering and sat down on the empty spot next to Castiel.   
  
Now, that all four angels were seated again, Lucifer noticed that Gaia still stood between them and their father. Both entities looked at each other, and while Lucifer had expected something a clash of their powers against each other, there was nothing but silence.   
  
Suddenly Gaia shook her head, and her disapproval with their father’s presence was almost palpable in the room.   
  
“Really? Taking the Spark from the little angel is never going to be enough for what you plan. A new realm? A new circle detached from this one while you put your helpless children in charge as you play with your new toys? Are you just bored by your creation or disappointed that they have outgrown you?”  
  
Rage made Lucifer’s blood boil when he heard Gaia’s words. He didn’t need any proof to believe her words because what she said was so fitting to their father, that a show was entirely unnecessary for him.   
  
Lucifer hadn’t noticed that he was standing, with his blade in his hand, but it was Gaia’s touch that brought him back to senses when she cupped his face with her small but warm hands. “It’s not worth it, Lucifer. Stop.” Snarling at his father, Lucifer didn’t free himself from Gaia’s touch, but he didn’t step back either when his father looked at him in a scolding way. “That’s so… you, Father. You are done with one toy, and you want the next. Just like a child plays with his ant farm only to get bored and start begging for a dog uncaring what will happen to his ants. Archangels, angels, humans… Nothing but moments of entertainment to you.”   
  
Lucifer noticed Gaia’s pained expression, but he couldn’t place it as his father looked at him like he couldn’t understand what Lucifer was saying. “You… aren’t… you were never were moments of entertainment to me, Lucifer. I only place my attention on something new when I know that my creation doesn’t need me anymore.”   
  
Noticing the movement coming from behind him, Lucifer snapped his arm out and gripped Gabriel by the arm when his brother tried to get past him. “Don’t you? Can you hear yourself talking? You used Michael to force Lucifer out of our home when he demanded something that you gave to your newest toys. You turned your back on him, on all of us, when your newest creation didn’t work out as you planned. Hell, you even wrote the script about how you want this world to end, but you forgot about the tiny thing you punished Lucifer so hard for. Free will, the free will had humanity spit onto your plan and saved this world. Sam and Dean are more worth more than you will ever be because they value what they have, they protect what they love! But that’s something you will never understand because you are unable to love anything.”   
  
Gabriel spits his ugly words at their father, and while Lucifer could have stopped him, even Gaia could have stopped him, no one did. They allowed Gabriel to speak his mind freely and Lucifer saw many emotions shifts over their father’s face. “Gabriel…”  
  
Gabriel made a sharp movement with his hand and cut their father off before He could even get started. “I don’t want to hear your apology because I don’t care. You were beaten on your little playfield. You lost control over it, and now you want to reboot the game to get back on the field. That’s not going to work. Do you want the Spark? You are never going to have it, dear old dad. Before you start something new, how about you check in with the first things you built, huh?”   
  


Nodding in the direction of the door, Lucifer noticed their oldest brother for the first time. Michael was hiding in the hallway leading to the kitchen, but he was spying into the room from around the corner. The second he felt all eyes turn on him, Michael whimpered and pulled himself back into the shadows of the hallway.   
  
While Lucifer could hear their father sigh, he looked down at Gaia who hadn’t broken their connection. “Can you help him? Michael, I mean. Despite everything that happened… he doesn’t deserve to walk around like a frightened bunny with nothing but vegetables as a brain.”   
  


Next, to him, Gabriel snorted, but Gaia’s smile was small and sad. “As much as I want to grant you your wish, Bright One, I can’t. The oldest of the archangels has no connection to this world and never had. He never had the desire to wander this world and thus, he never bound to it, and I’m unable to help him. He is purely made of light, it’s broken, and the shards are scattered, and while I can see the damage your prison did to him, I can’t fix him. I’m sorry, Bright One.”  
  
Lucifer rubbed his face against Gaia’s hand. “It’s okay, Gaia. I understand. Michael is not yours to heal.” The archangel said nothing more but raised his eyes to stare at his father.  
  
Father and son looked at each, and while Lucifer said not a single word, he put everything he had to endure at his father’s command in his eyes. He wanted to let his father see what Lucifer had to live through to get to the very point of his existence. That he was loved and cared for, but furthermore, Lucifer was now Sam’s archangel. They had found their place together, and Lucifer would stay by his side for all time. His father had lost him a long time ago.   
  
“I’m sorry, Lucifer.” His father sounded defeated, but strangely, Lucifer felt nothing at his father’s words. “I don’t care, Father. It’s too little, too late. You should go and care for the one son that maybe, one day, will be your son again because you lost the rest of us. Sam and Dean protect this world, and we will help them in any way we can. You aren’t needed anymore. Maybe, when Sam decides that the time is right, he will bring the Spark back to Heaven, and you can start your new realm, gather your new toys to play with until then, take care of Michael as you failed to do so when you should have. Be a real father and creator for once in your existence.”  
  
The defeated expression on their father’s face didn’t touch Lucifer at all, and when he looked at the others in the room, they didn’t seem to feel anything either.   
  
In front of their eyes, God dropped His shoulders when He finally understood that He wouldn’t get what He wanted. That He had to admit defeat in the eyes of His first-born sons while His oldest hid in the darkness.   
  
With slow and heavy steps, God stepped out into the hallway, and while Lucifer couldn’t see Michael, he saw his father’s pained expression when He took a long and good look at His first-born son.   
  
Their eyes met, and Lucifer could feel that his father wanted to say something, redeem Himself in front of Lucifer but the archangel saw no reason to give this to his father. Raising his head, Lucifer looked at his father and said nothing. There was no need for words, and his father seemed to finally understand, that there was nothing He could do to change Lucifer’s mind.   
  
Their father seemed to hold onto Michael because a moment later, God vanished from their home and the feeling of Michael’s tarnished grace disappeared with Him.


	10. Nature’s Rising

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys,
> 
> here we are...at the end. We've reached the end of Part 4. Feels weird to me. It's not the end of this series, there was always a part 5 planned for this story, it's weird to know how close we are to The End. 
> 
> Enjoy it, reread while waiting for part 5 because I have to prepare myself for going down this path and I'm not yet ready to say goodbye to my Protectors of the Realm.
> 
> Silva

After God vanished and taking Michael with Him, Lucifer felt a heavy weight fell from his shoulders. His father’s presence together with Michael’s had ripped open old wounds and that Sam was missing too made the archangel feel strained. He knew what was missing, but he had no way to do something about it.   
  
“Are you okay, Bright One?”   
  
Gaia’s question was hesitant as if she wasn’t sure what Lucifer’s answer would be. While Lucifer had stopped Gabriel from going for their father’s throat, Gaia never broke their connection, and normally Lucifer would mind someone who wasn’t family standing so close to him but… Gaia _was_ family in a greater sense of the word.   
  
“I will be when Sam, and Dean, are back with us,” was Lucifer’s answer and Gaia nodded before she turned towards Gabriel. The younger archangel still looked angry. Old anger displayed on his face and Lucifer could understand his brother’s fury. Maybe better than anybody else.   
  
Gaia tried to make Gabriel look at her, but the stubborn idiot only stared at the wall. Sadness played over her soft features before she, almost hesitantly, wrapped her arms around Gabriel’s chest. Lucifer watched and let go of Gabriel’s arm, but Gabriel stood there, tense and unyielding when Gaia tried to soothe his anger. Still, Lucifer could see it in his brother’s face. Gabriel had always been the most social among the archangels. The one the fledglings turned to and who loved easily and without condition, but the endless love Gabriel possessed could turn him cold and unforgiven. Just like Gabriel had shown earlier, he still hadn’t forgotten that their father had ripped their family apart. A lot of things need to happen before the youngest archangel could forgive what happened in the past and while Lucifer hadn’t forgiven their father, he had enough time back in the Cage to learn to accept his rage and anger. It almost destroyed him once and it was only because of Sam that Lucifer was still here. Gabriel still needed to find his way.   
  
“I’m sorry he hurt you so much, Divided One.” Gaia had placed her head on Gabriel’s shoulder, and her hand moved in slow circling motions over Gabriel’s back. “Even with who Heis, Hehas no right to hurt you like this. He is your father, your creator. He should have done better than this.” Gabriel huffed, but Lucifer could see Gabriel loosen up and that he was slowly accepting what Gaia was offering him. The same thing Sam offered them without question whenever they needed it, just to _be_.   
  
“But you, just like the others, don’t need Hima nymore, Divided One. There was a time when you were His son, but he wasn’t worthy to have you as His son. You were chosen by my Protector to be by his side. You are more, my beautiful son, now that you are Sam’s. Remember this, will you?”   
  


While Gaia spoke, Gabriel finally allowed her to hold him. He pulled her against his body and with his eyes closed, Gabriel allowed himself this moment to be held by her and Lucifer could feel himself feeling lighter too. As if someone had taken a heavy weight from him.   
  


When Gabriel finally pulled back, he went right for Lucifer who pulled his brother into a bone-crushing hug. It was something Sam sometimes grinned at; the way Lucifer seemed to crave the touch of everybody around him. Everybody knew why he was searching for such contact so often, and no one denied Lucifer the touch he needed. He would never deny his brother the same right. While he held his brother, Lucifer looked at Gaia. “You said you have answers for us. I think now is the right time to give us the answers we need.”   
  
Walking around the archangels and back to the still waiting pancakes, Gaia helped herself to a stack and sat down on her place at the table. “Of course, you will get the answers you seek. Please, allow me to talk why you enjoy your breakfast. Sam will be angry with me should he find out that you didn’t take care of yourselves and I mean all of you.”  
  
Everyone at the table knew she was right and so Lucifer nudged Gabriel on his shoulder, and they returned to their seats.   
  


Now, everyone at the table looked at Gaia who was chewing on a piece of pancake with great pleasure on her face. “That’s one of the best things humanity came up with, ever.” Next to Lucifer, Gabriel snorted before he lifted his plate and started to lick the remaining caramel syrup off the plate. Rolling with his eyes, Lucifer snapped once, and a cup of tea appeared in front of him. Using the mug to warm his hands, Lucifer looked at Gaia who looked like she was staring at something only she was able to see.   
  
“The first time I called two members of humanity as my Protectors, humanity was still young. They were children, barely able to walk and while I wouldn’t call the humanity of today an adult, they aren’t children anymore. They were when my first Protectors roamed this realm. They were feral, strong, drawn to each other because of something I couldn’t understand but the nature of this realm seemed to be speaking to them. I had no idea what humanity would come to be, but I knew that these tiny beings had great potential. The potential to create just as much of the potential to destroy.”   
  
Lucifer felt old memories return. The words were different, and the way Gaia spoke of humanity was different than Lucifer thought about them when he was younger, humanity barely made, but it resembled his thoughts that got him thrown into the Cage.  
  
“Through the deep connection, my first Protectors had to the nature of this realm, it was easy to give them a spark, a sliver of my strength. What I didn’t expect was that they were still too feral, to binding to nature to remain human enough to function as human beings. They forgot themselves.” Gaia shuddered at her memories, but no one dared to interrupt her. Everyone at the table had forgotten about their breakfast and looked at her. “They lost themselves to the power I gave them and joined this realm as the ones they should protect. They were bigger, smarter and stronger than their natural counterparts, but they were a danger to others. I couldn’t bear to lose them, and so I had to find a solution. A world close to this one, their realms overlapping just in small parts. I picked them out of this realm and gave them a world to ream not as fragile as this one, its creatures not as tiny as here. There, in this different realm, my first Protectors still roam. They have forgotten their origin, but they never forgot about their duty. They guard what needs to be guarded, and the world around them is wild and feral like this world never was.”   
  
Lucifer tried to imagine a version of Sam that would forget everything about what he is and just exist based on his instincts and need, but the picture wouldn’t form. He had seen Sam at his lowest, angriest and with rage like liquid fire in his blood when his antlers grew huge and turned obsidian. A Sam who had forgotten about himself was something Lucifer couldn’t picture.  
  
“My next Protectors were called when humanity started to spread all over this world. They weren’t as strong as Sam and Dean and hadn’t the abilities those two have, so when they tried to cross the ocean, and their ship sank to the ground. They chose to stay in the dark of the deepest waters of this world. They aren’t Protectors anymore, not in the sense of the word or what you see in Sam and Dean, but to this day, my second Protectors roam the darkest of the waters separating the continents of this world. They have no interest in humanity at all which is a good thing for humanity would fear them and try to fight them, and they would lose.”   
  
Gaia took a sip from a mug that had appeared in front of her before she went on with her story.   
  
“The third time I name two beings my Protector happened not long ago. During the time of the first crusades.” Lucifer remembered this time. Even trapped in the Cage, he was able to follow certain periods of them, and when humanity slaughtered each other in the name of his father, he had laughed so hard the bars of the Cage shook. “I have to admit, that I never paid much attention to the Eternal One’s children and my ignorance was the reason the Guardian of this time died at the hands of an angel.”   
  
An icy silence fell over the room, and the angels at the table moved not one feather. “How was an angel capable of killing the Guardian? Joshua told me that the Protectors are strong, but he never dared telling me what happened to the ones before Sam and Dean.”   
  
Ramiel seemed to be the bravest of them for asking this question. Gaia looked at the little angel, and an old fury appeared on her face.   
  
“Sam and Dean are… unique in their existence. The Guardian and the Nourisher who lived around the time of the first crusade were less strong, less feared and different to Sam and Dean like an angel is different to an archangel.” That was an analogy everyone in the room understood. A mere angel, like Ramiel, stood no chance against an archangel in open battle. Even Castiel, strong as he had become, wasn’t a real match to an archangel.   
  
“The Guardians of that time died under the blade of an angel. I don’t know how and why the angels interfered in human matters, but it showed something within my Protectors, and you might call it a deadly flaw. One cannot exist without the other. I was sleeping during the time of the crusade, but I felt the death of my Guardian like someone a thrust a blade into my own body. The Nourisher, she… when her mate died the Nourisher went insane with the last breath of her mate. She annihilated cities, ripped the continent apart and killed the angel who murdered her mate. Thousands died under her claws and rivers turned red under the blood spilled on her path. I’m not surprised that the Host wanted to overlook about this, but I’m glad there is at least one angel left who dared to remember when everyone else wanted to forget or was able to get to know about it before everything was hidden behind fear and a thick mist.”   
  
“The Nourisher, what happened to her?” No one was surprised that it was Castiel who asked the question and Gaia looked at him for a long moment before she answered. “When I was able to make her stop, she asked me to release her from her duties as my Protector. She didn’t want to be part of a world that had taken her beloved mate. I accepted her wish and ended her suffering. The power following her death helped to rebuild what was destroyed but still… I miss them.”   
  
Lucifer had no trouble imagining a world without Sam. He would destroy this world down to the last grain of dust before he would make sure that even his father got the message when he used his grace to rip this whole realm apart. When Lucifer looked at Gabriel and Castiel, he could see the same thoughts mirror on their faces while Ramiel looked outright terrified. She had spent enough time with all of them to know what would happen should someone take Sam and Dean from them.   
  
“As interesting as it is to hear the history of your Protectors, Gaia, what happened to Sam and Dean?” Gabriel was never one of the most patient beings, but this time he spoke for all of them.   
  
 Gaia held her mug tight in her small hands and said nothing for such a long time that even Lucifer felt impatience rise in his grace. Gaia seemed to be able to sense what was going on around her because she started to speak again right at the moment Lucifer wanted to demand answers.   
  
“Sam and Dean are… unique, as I already said but you know this; I was sleeping, still resting from the loss of my last Protectors, when I felt it, the moment of their birth. They were born years apart but to me, it was like a single day because I could feel them suddenly as one and I when I learned about them, I felt so… torn. I had heard the stories the angels whispered among their kin about the end of the world. Ignorant little beings never thought about the life they would destroy by ripping this world apart. Children without someone taking care of them have the tendencies to do stupid things but when I learned that He wrote the end of the world and that His children were following the ideas of a... let’s call him, a mad man… I was furious. Time isn’t always the same for me as it is for humanity or even for you angels. I tried to help in what ways I was able without making Sam and Dean suspicious. They are sometimes too smart for their good, especially Sam.”  
  


Gaia’s smile was fond and warm when she spoke of Sam, and the same feeling applied to Lucifer. She was right; Sam was sometimes was too smart for his own good.   
  
“The Winchesters were born to be strong, powerful, bullheaded you might say but they only resembled the archangels they should meet in their life. When I felt Sam fall together with you and your brother, Bright One, I tried to form a plan to free you both, but I was at a loss how to achieve it. I was left with only one solution I had sworn to myself to never use again after what happened during the crusade. I wanted to see Sam and Dean as my Protectors because I knew, I felt, they would be magnificent and stronger than any Guardian and Nourisher before them.” Now Gaia looked proud when she spoke of the two brothers, and Lucifer felt the same way.   
  
“When they killed the blood witch, it was the perfect moment to give them a spark of my power that would turn them into my Protectors over time. I didn’t want to rush their transformation, not again. I wanted them to have time to learn about themselves and grow into their powers and it worked better than even I expected. Bringing you, Divided One, back wasn’t easy and I could feel how angry you were for only being half of what you used to be, but I know that Sam would give you back what you had lost when you died.”   
  
Gabriel looked embarrassed as he looked at the scratches on the table. Lucifer knew what happened before he was freed from the Cage, had seen it through Sam’s eyes, but he would never have considered for Gabriel to be angry. To him, Gabriel always seemed to be more in tune with his pagan nature than his angelic side.   
  
“But it worked out even better and faster than I expected.” Gaia looked at Gabriel with a knowing smile. “Sam couldn’t bear the thought of losing you and so he not only healed the wound that was your missing grace, but he claimed you at the same moment. I was impressed, and a bit sorry for you, that you had to wait so long to claim him in return.”   
  
Gaia’s bell-like laughter filled the room, and Gabriel grinned happily and maybe a bit smug at her.   
  
“Still, there was a huge difference between Sam and Dean even after Sam claimed his Divided One. While Dean had already claimed and bound himself to his mate, Sam was still wasn’t who he was supposed to be. He needed you to finally be whole again.” Gaia’s green eyes bore into Lucifer who felt like he was chained to his chair. “It is true that you and Sam are two sides of the same coin. You two need each other to the point that you need each other to merely exist. I never witnessed such a thing before, but once you two were bound to each other, I knew that finally, my Protector was whole again. Which was the reason I finally allowed myself to go back to sleep. I’m not needed with two such strong Protectors roaming this realm.“  
  
Gaia stopped speaking to take a sip from her mug, but she looked like she was thinking about her next words.  
  
“Even in my sleep, I could feel them getting stronger. I spoke to them in our shared dreams, and they allowed me to be a part of them even in my sleep, but suddenly, I couldn’t reach them anymore. Their dreams were closed off to me and, to be honest, I panicked when I couldn’t feel them, and so I woke up.”   
  
A breeze whipped through the kitchen and made things rattle and clatter in the room. “When I awoke, I felt no threat to this world, no pain of loss or destruction. I couldn’t understand what was wrong and why my Protectors weren’t responding to my calls. It took me awhile to figure out what happened because waking up so suddenly isn’t easy for me. It takes a while for me to become coherent and get everything back together, but when I was able to locate them, I was surprised to find them sleeping in the Cage.”  
  
Lucifer still could smell the flowers growing around the Cage and how tall the oak had grown. “Why the Cage? That’s what I don’t understand. This place is their home, and they know we would have protected them here.” Castiel’s deep voice fit the question of the hour perfectly. “Was there something that made Sam and Dean not trust them?”  
  
A deep vibrating growl was to hear, and Gaia looked slowly from one angel to the other. “Stop with this foolishness, all of you. They left and went into the Cage not because they don’t trust you, but to protect you. Sam and Dean are… changing, evolving, becoming more. Chose a word you like but it doesn’t change the fact they aren’t able to control their powers, and they have the strength to destroy this world. The Cage was made to contain a primordial entity, and I think they needed to use the Cage to protect this world against them. Asleep, they have no way to keep their powers in check.”  
  
Now everyone frowned at Gaia, and it was Gabriel who spoke next. “Okay, that makes sense, but you made them what they are today. Why were you surprised that your own creation decided to fall asleep and… evolve?”   
  
Gaia pushed an unruly strand of hair out of her face and placed her mug back on the table. “No, because I don’t control my Protectors. I can nudge them and show them a direction, but they chose to follow it or walk their own way. Never in all my existence have Protectors chosen to sleep because of the change in their powers, their strength demanded a rest to grow and settle but none of the Protectors before were bound to not only angels but archangels.”  
  
With her hand, Gaia mentioned at every angel at the table. “You all are connected. Through bonds forged in battle and blood, through decisions made in haste, out of necessity or because you just wanted to. They claimed you all as their own, even you, little Ramiel, and these bonds changed them maybe more than I did. All of you, are strong and powerful on your own but you are even stronger together. Every one of you brings something into these bonds that are uniquely _you_. These bonds created something like… feedback between all of you. It explains why Castiel is stronger than he should be considered his rank within the Host, why Ramiel can hold onto the Spark of the Garden, why Lucifer was able to let go of his anger and why Gabriel allowed himself to accept this place as a home finally. It’s because of all of you. These connections accelerated what should have taken lifetimes to grow and so Sam and Dean decided to sleep because they didn’t want to endanger any of you. I saw the oak tree Sam made grow in the Heart of Hell just like I saw the flowers that resemble all of you. They will sleep until this change has passed and they will return to you. They will return as they are but stronger and far beyond this realm. I won’t be needed as long as the circle moves. They will guard, grow and protect this world and when I wake up the next time it will be because we reached the end of this circle and a new one is about to start. When the end is reached, the Protectors will sleep while I will be awake to find a new world for them to guard.”  
  
Silence fell once again over the kitchen. Everyone knew what Gaia was talking about. The end of the world in a less dramatic way than everything the angels would have done during the first apocalypse. When the end of the circle was reached, this realm will end, and the way Gaia spoke, not even their father could stop it.  
  
It was easy to accept this fate, for all of them. Neither of them had ever thought about the actual end of the world, not with Sam and Dean protecting it, but the way Gaia described it, it was only a break before the new circle was about to start. No need to dwell on it for now.  
  
“Sam and Dean… when will they wake up again?” Lucifer missed Sam, missed them, and even after everything they had heard, the only answer that mattered to them was to the question Lucifer had just asked.   
  
“I don’t know, Lucifer. It seems that they waited as long as they could before they went to sleep. They lost time preparing a vessel for your brother Michael and sent him to you with a message, but I don’t know when they will wake up. I only know that it will be the most beautiful and breathtaking thing this world has ever seen.”  
  
…  
  
Seven months later, which resembled centuries in Hell, the reborn Protectors rose again, and Gaia had been right, all those months ago. The rise of the reborn Protectors of the Realm was the most beautiful thing their tiny little world had ever seen.

**Author's Note:**

> For more of my insanity, find me on tumblr: [Silvaxus](https://silvaxus.tumblr.com/) You want on my taglist on tumblr? No Problem! Write me a message either here on Ao3 with your tumblr tag or write me on tumblr.


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